10 top telecom service providers in India

India is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. The booming telecom industry has been attracting large amount of investments in the country.

The number of telephone subscriber base in the country reached 671.69 million as on June 30, 2010 from 653.92 million in May 2010, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

According to the latest survey conducted by Voice and Data, CyberMedia group journal, Bharti Airtel emerges as India's top mobile phone operator in 2009-10.

Let's take a look at India's top 10 telecom service providers in India in terms of revenue.

1. Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel retained its leading position among telecom service providers and posted a growth of five per cent to end 2009-10 fiscal with revenues of Rs 38,800 crore (Rs 388 billion).

The company is structured into four strategic business units -- mobile, telemedia, enterprise and digital TV.

The company has with operations in 18 countries with a footprint covering 1.8 billion people. Sunil Bharti Mittal is the chairman and managing director of the company.

In March 2010, Bharti Airtel bought the African operations of Kuwait-based Zain Telecom for $10.7 billion.

Recently, it has joined a consortium of global telecom operators to announce the launch of the EASSy cable system -- the 10,000 km undersea cable connecting Africa to Europe.

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2. BSNL

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited saw a drop in its revenue for the second consecutive year to post Rs 30,240 crore (Rs 302.4 billion), a drop of 14 per cent, even though it retained the number two position among telecom players.

BSNL offers both fixed line and mobile services with broadband connections.

With over 71.68 million subscribers, BSNL currently is the largest wireline service provider in India.

The company has reported around 6 crore (600 million) 2G connections and 9,73,378 3G connections since February 2010. All major towns and cities are covered through BSNL network.

Gopal Das is the new chairman and managing director of BSNL.

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3. Vodafone Essar

The Indian subsidiary of Vodafone Group, Vodafone Essar recorded 13.7 per cent growth to emerge as the third largest player with revenue of Rs 23,200 crore (Rs 232 billion).

The company commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai.

It has operations across the country with over 106.34 million customers.

It is the world's leading international mobile communications group with approximately 347 million proportionate customers as on 30 June 2010 and has around 40 partner networks worldwide.

Vittorio Colao is Vodafone chief executive, and Marten Pieters is managing director and CEO, Vodafone Essar.

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4. Reliance Communications

Reliance ADA Group's flagship company, Reliance Communications reported a negative growth of 3.5 per cent with revenue of Rs 22,130 crore (Rs 221.3 billion).

It is India's largest private sector information and communications company, with over 100 million subscribers.

It has established a pan-India, high-capacity, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network, to offer services spanning the entire infocomm value chain.

Anil D Ambani is the chairman of the company.

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5. Idea Cellular

Idea Cellular is part of the Aditya Birla Group and has bagged fifth position with a revenue of Rs 11,390 crore (Rs 113.9 billion).

It is a leading GSM mobile services operator in India with 67 million subscribers. Idea offers both prepaid and post paid services.

It is a pan-India operator with services being made available in all parts of the country.

Idea was the first cellular service provider to launch General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) in the country.

Kumar Mangalam Birla is the chairman of the group.

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6. Tata Communications

Tata Communications reported revenue of Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion).

The company holds leadership position in emerging markets.

Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.

The Tata Global Network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data center and collocation space worldwide.

Srinath Narasimhan is the managing director and CEO of Tata Communications.

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7. Tata Teleservices

Tata Teleservices spearheads the Tata Group's presence in the telecom sector. It has posted revenue of Rs 6,900 crore (Rs 69 billion).

Established in 1996, Tata Teleservices, one of the 96 companies of Tata Group, has its network in 20 circles. It is the first company to launch CDMA mobile services in India.

It launched mobile operations in January 2005 under the brand name Tata Indicom. It enjoys a pan-India presence through existing operations in all of India's 22 telecom circles.

Tata Teleservices operates under five different brands -- Tata Indicom (CDMA services), Tata DOCOMO (GSM services), Virgin Mobile, Tata Walky (which is the brand for fixed wireless phones), Tata Photon (the company's brand that provides a variety of options for wireless mobile broadband access) and T24.

Tata Teleservices Ltd, along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, serves nearly 70 million customers in more than 450,000 towns and villages across the country.

Anil Sardana is the managing director of Tata Teleservices.

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8. Aircel

Aircel recorded the highest growth of 37.2 per cent among operators in 2009-10.

The company posted a revenue of Rs 4,700 crore (Rs 47 billion) to move to the number eight slot.

It is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities Investments Private Limited, whose current shareholders are the Reddy family of Apollo Hospitals Group of India.

Aircel commenced operations in 1999 and became the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu.

It emerged a market leader in Assam and in the North Eastern provinces within 18 months of operations.

Today, the company has a foothold in 21 circles including Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Assam, North East, Orissa, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kolkata, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, UP(West), UP(East), Maharashtra & Goa , Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.

It has over 43 million customers in the country.

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MTNL

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)'s revenue dropped nearly by a fifth highest among the top 10 players -- to Rs 3,650 crore (Rs 36.5 billion).

The company has achieved a customer base of 8.06 million in the two metro cities of Delhi and Mumbai. The government currently holds 56.25 per cent stake in the company.

Today it has more than 9,00,000 GSM mobile connections.

The company was in the forefront of technology induction by converting 100 per cent of its telephone exchange network into the state-of-the-art digital mode.

Kuldip Singh is chairman & managing director of MTNL.

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TTML

The third Tata group company i nthis arena, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) is ranked number 10, among the top ten telecom players in India, with revenues of Rs 2,300 crore (23 billion. This helped the group's earning go past the Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) mark.

TTML leads the Tata group's presence in the telephony sector in the telecom circles of Maharashtra and Goa, including Mumbai.

TTML commenced landline operations in 1998 and has the largest wireline base in Mumbai and Maharashtra amongst all private operators.

The company has over 600,000 subscribers.

Kishor Chaukar is the chairman of TTML.