Analysys Mason's latest report names the top-ten operators worldwide for 2009, revealing that the major players have retained the leadership positions they held in 2008.

According to the report, the worldwide telecoms market generated USD1.8 trillion (EUR1.3 trillion) in revenue in 2009, a 1% increase in comparison with 2008. In the list of top-ten operators by revenue, familiar names appear.

The top ten operators are:

   1. AT&T (USA)
   2. NTT (Japan)
   3. Verizon (USA)
   4. Deutsche Telekom (Germany)
   5. Telefónica (Spain)
   6. Vodafone (UK)
   7. China Mobile (China)
   8. France Telecom (France)
   9. Telecom Italia (Italy)
  10. KDDI (Japan)

"Verizon moved into third position following its acquisition of Alltel Wireless. Vodafone moved into sixth place, displacing France Telecom. France Telecom lost market share because of its heavy exposure to the European market, which accounts for 90% of its revenue compared with 75% for Deutsche Telekom and only 62% for Telefonica," explains Roz Roseboro, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason and author of the report.

This top-ten list changes significantly when the operators are ranked according to their earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin:

   1. China Mobile
   2. Telefonica
   3. Telecom Italia
   4. AT&T
   5. Vodafone
   6. France Telecom
   7. NTT
   8. Deutsche Telekom
   9. Verizon
  10. KDDI

According to Roseboro, increased competition from new entrants is reducing pricing power in some markets, while growth in subscriber numbers is essentially flat in others. In either case, customer retention is critical.

"Operators in mature markets need to find ways to extract more value from mobile data traffic in order to fund the necessary investments in mobile infrastructure. Operators in growth markets need to a plan for a shift from subscriber acquisition to revenue generation by segmenting their customer base and offering tailored packages that will increase loyalty and usage," says Roseboro.