According to ABI Research, on basis of their quarterly results for the second quarter of 2013, operators such as China Mobile, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Telefonica and Vodafone feature in the top 10 most profitable players in the global telecom industry. The other players to feature in the top 10 most profitable players list include NTT DOCOMO, China Telecom, France Telecom Group, VimpleCom and KDDI.
Together the top five mobile operators represent 49 per cent of the total gross profit generated by the 50 largest mobile service providers across the world. While, for the period under review, China Mobile is the most profitable mobile carrier with gross profit of $10,120.8 million, the operator?s quarterly gross profit per subscriber stands at $16.40. Even though, China Mobile?s profit per subscriber is substantially lower than that reported by competitors such as Verizon Wireless? and AT&T?s, ABI Research expects China Mobile to extend its lead over the other service providers. Increasing proportion of revenue from 3G and 4G services will boost China Mobile?s overall profitability. In the second quarter of 2013, China Mobile?s quarterly gross profit grew by 2.1 per cent compared to Verizon Wireless? 1 per cent and AT&T?s 0.2 per cent.
Verizon and AT&T have posted quarterly revenue of $8,511 and $6,521 in the year 2013. Both the operators? revenue have been driven by the growth in 4G subscriber base, and increased revenue from the enterprise segment as well as the machine to machine (M2M) services. In the second quarter of 2013, Verizon focused on certifying new M2M solutions for use on its wireless network through partner programs in healthcare IT industry, while AT&T introduced home security and automation services. The fourth and the fifth ranked operators, Telefonica and Vodafone reported gross profit of $4,420.5 and $3,969, respectively in the second quarter of 2013.
ABI Research states that in an effort to yield higher revenues, worldwide operators are focusing on converting their prepaid subscribers into post-paid subscribers. In addition, service providers are firming up their postpaid smartphone devices portfolio by introducing post-paid centric applications and offering plans which can be shared across multiple devices.
