Status: November 2026. This module is a map, not a statistics yearbook. Subscriber numbers and market shares come from public reports found during research, each with its date; several come from trade press or analysts rather than regulators and are marked as such. Some markets are not covered (see the end). Ownership and deals change quickly — always confirm in the regulator's latest report.
1. How to read a country
For every market ask the same six questions: who regulates, how many networks, who owns them, how was spectrum assigned, what is the 5G story, what changed recently (merger, outage, shutdown, breach). The patterns repeat all over the world.
| Pattern | Typical examples in this module |
|---|---|
| Three or four national networks, often with strong incumbent | Almost everywhere |
| Consolidation 4 → 3 | United States (2025), United Kingdom (2025), Indonesia (2025), France and Italy (under discussion) |
| Very large scale at a few operators | China, India |
| A regional group owns many national operators | América Móvil, Vodafone, MTN, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and others |
| Spectrum auctions as policy tools | Serbia, Turkey, Croatia — with local-content or coverage conditions |
| Shutdown of old networks | 3G switched off (Australia 2024); 2G/3G sunsets ongoing elsewhere |
| Security incidents shape rules | SK Telecom HSS breach (Korea 2025); Optus outages and 000 (Australia) |
2. The big markets at a glance
| Country (MCC) | Regulator | Main mobile operators | Headline fact (source type, date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| China (460) | MIIT | China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Broadnet (fourth) | 4.83 million 5G base stations and 1.19 billion 5G users (65.3% of mobile subscribers) at end-November 2025 — MIIT figures via trade press |
| India (404, 405) | DoT, TRAI | Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, BSNL | June 2026: Jio about 503.6 M wireless subscribers (39.3%), Airtel about 486.8 M (38.0%); total about 1.29 bn wireless (TRAI/Ind-Ra via press) |
| United States (310–316) | FCC | AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile; cable MVNOs; Boost (EchoStar) | 2025: EchoStar agreed to sell spectrum to AT&T (about $23 bn) and to SpaceX (about $17 bn plus later deals); the U.S. went from four to three national carriers |
| Indonesia (510) | Komdigi (Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs) | Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, XLSmart | XL Axiata + Smartfren (+ Smart Telecom) merged into XLSmart in April 2025 (deal about $6.5 bn); about 94.5 M subscribers projected |
| Brazil (724) | Anatel | Vivo (Telefónica), Claro (América Móvil), TIM | Q2 2026: Vivo 37.9%, Claro 33.2%, TIM 22.4% of accesses (93.5% together); 5G 66.1 M accesses = 23.9% of the base |
| Mexico (334) | national regulator (reorganised recently; verify) | Telcel (América Móvil), AT&T Mexico, Movistar, MVNOs | Jan 2026: Telcel 83.4 M users, 45.8% of the market |
| Japan (440, 441) | MIC | NTT Docomo, KDDI (au), SoftBank, Rakuten Mobile | 2023 estimate: 26.3% of mobile base stations were 5G SA, similar to Korea (26.2%), below the US (36.2%) and China (34.8%) |
| South Korea (450) | MSIT | SK Telecom, KT, LG U+ | 2025: SK Telecom HSS breach exposing USIM-related data of roughly 23–27 M customers (counts differ by source) |
| Germany (262) | Bundesnetzagentur | Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica (O2), and 1&1 (fourth network, still building) | March 2025: regulator extended 800/1800/2600 MHz licences by five years with conditions |
| United Kingdom (234, 235) | Ofcom | EE (BT), VodafoneThree, Virgin Media O2 | Vodafone and Three merged on 31 May 2025 (4 → 3); initial ownership 51% Vodafone / 49% CK Hutchison group |
| France (208) | ARCEP | Orange, SFR (Altice), Bouygues Telecom, Free (Iliad) | 6 June 2026: Orange, Bouygues and Free signed an agreement to buy SFR jointly (EV about EUR 20.35 bn; Bouygues 42%, Free 31%, Orange 27%); competition review pending |
| Italy (222) | AGCOM | TIM, Fastweb + Vodafone, WindTre, Iliad | See Module 31 |
| Turkey (286) | BTK | Turkcell, Vodafone Türkiye, Türk Telekom | 5G auction October 2025 (700 MHz, 3.5 GHz; reported US$2.95–3.53 bn, sources differ); licences to 2042; 5G launched 1 April 2026 in all 81 provinces; at least 30% local content rule |
| Nigeria (621) | NCC | MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Globacom, T2 (ex-9mobile) | Dec 2025: 179.6 M active mobile subscriptions; MTN 93 M (51.9%), Airtel 60.8 M (33.9%), Glo 22.2 M (12.4%), T2 3.2 M (1.8%) |
| South Africa (655) | ICASA | Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C | Vodacom share 43% → 36% (Q1 2024 → Q4 2025), Telkom 16% → 19%, Cell C 8% → 9% (press, 2026) |
| Saudi Arabia (420) | CST | stc, Mobily, Zain | stc reports more than 18,000 5G base stations (operator claim, early 2026) |
| UAE (424) | TDRA | e& (Etisalat), du | 5G spectrum in 2018, 100 MHz each in 3.3–3.8 GHz; 2026 plans for upper-6 GHz |
| Australia (505) | ACMA | Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom (Vodafone) | 3G switched off: TPG Jan 2024; Telstra and Optus 28 Oct 2024. Optus outages in 2023 and 2025 led to ACMA penalties and investigations |
MCC values are from the ITU E.212 lists as commonly published; not all were individually re-checked. Regulator abbreviations for Japan, Korea, Mexico, Indonesia and Australia come from general knowledge and press, not a fresh check.
3. Regional stories
3.1 China and India — scale
- China: four national operators; the state sets 5G targets. MIIT counted 4.83 million 5G base stations (37.4% of all mobile base stations) and 1.19 billion 5G users (65.3% of mobile subscribers) at the end of November 2025. China Mobile alone reported 622.3 million 5G-plan subscribers at the end of Q3 2025. The scale makes China the world's largest 5G network and a major vendor and standards player (Huawei, ZTE).
- India: after a price war and consolidation, two private operators (Jio and Airtel) dominate; Vodafone Idea and state-owned BSNL keep shrinking in wireless. 5G subscribers were reported at about 434 million by April 2026; 5G fixed wireless is growing (Jio about 9.1 M, Airtel about 3.8 M in June 2026). The result approaches a duopoly, which regulators watch closely.
3.2 United States — spectrum and consolidation
- Three national networks (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) after EchoStar (Dish) sold spectrum: AT&T (30 MHz of 3.45 GHz and about 20 MHz of 600 MHz, about $23 bn) and SpaceX (AWS-4/H-block about $17 bn plus later AWS-3 spectrum for about $2.6 bn in stock). Boost Mobile moved to a hybrid model on AT&T's network.
- Fixed wireless access is a large 5G product: T-Mobile about 7.3 M, Verizon about 5.1 M and AT&T about 1 M subscribers (June 2025).
- Cable operators (Comcast, Charter) sell mobile as MVNOs. (Subscriber counts were not captured here.)
- Why it matters for security: the carrier reshuffle, spectrum exchange and the Salt Typhoon intrusions (Module 27) shape U.S. policy.
3.3 Japan and South Korea — advanced 5G, very different structures
- Japan: three incumbents plus Rakuten Mobile as a newer fourth network built on a cloud-native, virtualised design (general knowledge; current subscriber numbers for the Japanese operators were not found in this research).
- South Korea: three operators; KT launched 5G standalone commercially in July 2021; a 2025 industry body was formed to push nationwide SA. SK Telecom's April 2025 breach hit the HSS (the subscriber database, Module 2/11) and exposed USIM-related data; regulators imposed record penalties (reported amounts differ across sources) and the company offered free SIM replacement.
3.4 Southeast Asia
- Indonesia: the XLSmart merger (April 2025) reduced the market to three major networks (Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, XLSmart) in a country of archipelago geography; the regulator conditioned approval on network commitments.
- Vietnam and the Philippines were not covered by sources found in this research.
3.5 Western Europe's big four
- Germany: four networks; the fourth (1&1) is still expanding. Spectrum licences were extended for five years in 2025 with sharing/MVNO conditions.
- United Kingdom: merger of Vodafone and Three (31 May 2025) created VodafoneThree, challenging EE and Virgin Media O2. A later report mentions Vodafone agreeing in May 2026 to buy out CK Hutchison's share (verify).
- France: possibly the next major 4 → 3 market through the SFR carve-up (Orange, Bouygues, Free); French regulator ARCEP will have to authorise any spectrum transfers.
- Italy: four networks, consolidation talks (Module 31).
3.6 Turkey and the Gulf
- Turkey: three operators; 5G arrived in April 2026 after a large auction, with a local-content condition.
- Gulf states: stc, Mobily, Zain (Saudi), e& and du (UAE) are among the earliest and strongest 5G markets; regulators (CST, TDRA) are now moving to upper-6 GHz and early 6G experiments.
3.7 Latin America
- Brazil: three operators share 93.5% of mobile accesses (Q2 2026). Anatel says the market remains highly concentrated. 5G is 23.9% of the base.
- Mexico: Telcel (América Móvil) dominates with about 46% of users; América Móvil's largest wireless bases are Brazil (about 89.3 M, Q3 2025) and Mexico (about 84.4 M).
- América Móvil is a good example of a regional group across Latin America, as Vodafone and MTN are in Europe and Africa.
3.8 Africa
- Nigeria: about 179.6 M active mobile subscriptions (Dec 2025). MTN and Airtel control about 85% together. The regulator's SIM–NIN linkage cleanup reduced active counts in some months. T2 (formerly 9mobile) uses a roaming deal with MTN to reach customers.
- South Africa: leader Vodacom is losing share to Telkom and Cell C (press, 2026); ICASA's inquiry found dominance in specific municipalities.
- Kenya's Safaricom and M-Pesa (mobile money) are important but were not sourced in this research; see the gaps list.
3.9 Oceania
- Australia: after 3G was switched off (TPG Jan 2024; Telstra and Optus 28 Oct 2024), phones that could not move to 4G voice lost access, including emergency calls — a lesson in switching-off old networks. Optus suffered a large outage in November 2023 and another Triple Zero (000) outage in September 2025, both followed by regulator action.
- New Zealand was not covered by sources found here.
4. Lessons from the map
- Everywhere moves toward three operators. Regulators weigh price and investment.
- Spectrum is the lever. Auctions with conditions (coverage, local content, infrastructure sharing) shape markets (Serbia, Turkey, Croatia, Germany).
- Mobile networks are national infrastructure, so incidents (SKT, Optus, Salt Typhoon) quickly become political.
- 5G progress differs by metric: population coverage, stand-alone share, FWA subscribers and 5G user share are all different measures.
- Old networks do not die by themselves. 3G/2G shutdowns must plan for emergency calls, M2M devices and roamers (Module 24).
- Group ownership connects countries. An operator's behaviour in one country is easier to predict if you know its group.
5. What is not covered here (gaps) and how to fill them
- Russia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Vietnam, the Philippines, Kenya (Safaricom, M-Pesa), Ethiopia, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, Poland, the Nordics and Greece and many others.
- Exact current market shares for most countries; use each regulator's latest quarterly report.
- How to fill: use the regulator's statistics page, the largest operators' annual reports, GSMA The Mobile Economy regional editions, and trade press such as TeleGeography, RCR Wireless, TelecomTV and Mobile World Live. Always note the date.
Remember this: the same few forces — spectrum policy, consolidation, 5G investment, old-network shutdowns and security incidents — appear in every country. If you can describe those five for a market, you understand it.