Telecom: players, trends, regulation, and how to crack the cases
Examples of operators and tower companies by region, trends from 2024 to 2026, regulation basics, and typical case prompts.
Industry brief, with a one-minute summary: Telecom: mobile and fixed networksFirm processes and online tests change from year to year and differ by office. Use this to prepare, and confirm the exact current steps on the firm's own careers page.
Key takeaways
- Telecom markets are national, usually with three or four operators. The number of competitors, the price level, and the regulator's stance explain most of an operator's profit.
- Common traps: Judging an operator on EBITDA without capital spending.
- Mobile is near its ceiling in people but not in data. GSMA reports that unique mobile subscribers equal around 70 percent of the world population (Mobile Economy 2026).
- Indian ARPU is still low. For January to March 2026, Bharti Airtel reported ARPU of about INR 257 a month (down INR 2 on the previous quarter) and Reliance Jio about INR 214 (TelecomTalk).
- Consolidation in Europe. Vodafone and Three completed their UK merger on 31 May 2025, creating VodafoneThree and cutting the number of UK mobile network operators from four to three.
Key idea
Telecom markets are national, usually with three or four operators. The number of competitors, the price level, and the regulator's stance explain most of an operator's profit.
| Region | Operators (examples) |
|---|---|
| India | Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, BSNL (state-owned) |
| Gulf | e& and du (UAE), stc and Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Zain (Kuwait and other countries), Ooredoo (Qatar), Omantel |
| Europe | Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica; VodafoneThree in the UK |
| US | Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile US; cable companies such as Comcast and Charter for broadband |
| Africa | MTN, Airtel Africa, Vodacom, Safaricom (Kenya), Orange Africa |
| Southeast Asia and China | Singtel, Telkomsel (Indonesia), Axiata, Globe and PLDT (Philippines); China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom |
| Latin America | America Movil (Claro), Telefonica (Movistar), TIM Brasil |
So-what
Many operators now earn more outside pure connectivity: Safaricom's M-Pesa mobile money brought in about 45.6 percent of Safaricom Kenya's service revenue in the year to March 2026.
Trends from 2024 to 2026 (checked 28 September 2026)
- Mobile is near its ceiling in people but not in data. GSMA reports that unique mobile subscribers equal around 70 percent of the world population (Mobile Economy 2026). Ericsson counted about 3.1 billion 5G subscriptions after the first quarter of 2026 and forecasts about 6.4 billion by the end of 2031.
- Indian ARPU is still low. For January to March 2026, Bharti Airtel reported ARPU of about INR 257 a month (down INR 2 on the previous quarter) and Reliance Jio about INR 214 (TelecomTalk). In April to June 2026 Airtel's ARPU rose to INR 264, from INR 250 a year earlier, and its India EBITDA margin was about 60 percent, above the usual 30 to 50 percent range, partly because lease accounting rules count most tower rent as depreciation and interest, below EBITDA (TelecomTalk). Tariff increases are a frequent topic of Indian telecom cases.
- Consolidation in Europe. Vodafone and Three completed their UK merger on 31 May 2025, creating VodafoneThree and cutting the number of UK mobile network operators from four to three. Vodafone has since agreed to buy out CK Hutchison's 49 percent stake and take full ownership (Vodafone).
- Phones connect to satellites. T-Mobile US launched T-Satellite with Starlink commercially on 23 July 2025, starting with texting where there is no ground signal (T-Mobile). Direct-to-device satellite service is spreading.
- Fiber and data centers. AI and cloud growth raise demand for fiber between data centers, and fiber builds continue, with costs tracked in the Fiber Broadband Association's annual cost report.
Operators need licences and spectrum from the government, usually through auctions with coverage obligations. Regulators (for example TRAI in India, Ofcom in the UK, the FCC in the US, and the TDRA in the UAE) set rules on competition, wholesale access, number portability (keeping your number when you switch, which makes switching easier and can raise churn), consumer protection, and sometimes prices. Mergers that reduce the number of operators get close review. Many countries limit foreign ownership of telecom companies and require security checks on network equipment vendors.
| Case prompt | Structure hint | First driver to check |
|---|---|---|
| How do we reduce churn? | Who leaves (segment, tenure, contract), why (price, network, service), and when | Churn rate by segment and the main reason customers give |
| Should we raise prices by 15 percent? | Revenue gain versus customers lost; competitor response | Whether competitors will follow, and how price-sensitive prepaid users are |
| Should we invest in 5G or fiber in this area? | Demand, take-up, ARPU uplift, cost, payback, competitor plans | Expected take-up rate and ARPU |
| Should we sell our towers? | Cash now versus rent paid later; control and quality; use of the cash | Sale price compared with the value of future rent the operator must pay |
| Should two operators merge? | Synergies (network, IT, staff), revenue risk, regulator remedies, integration | Network cost synergies from combining sites |
| Should a telco launch mobile money? | Unbanked users, agent network, regulation, partners, fees | Share of subscribers without a bank account |
So-what
Telecom cases reward thinking about fixed costs and competitors at the same time. A price rise that competitors do not follow can backfire.
Judging an operator on EBITDA without capital spending. Assuming a price rise keeps all customers. Forgetting prepaid versus postpaid differences in churn and ARPU. Ignoring spectrum costs in a 5G business case. Treating a tower sale as free money (the operator must pay rent for years). Forgetting that the regulator shapes pricing and mergers.
A large Indian operator has 450 million subscribers and an ARPU of INR 214 a month. What is its quarterly revenue from these subscribers, in INR crore? (1 crore is 10 million.)
Related modules: "Pricing" (case type) covers tariff changes; "Investment and capital project decisions" covers 5G and fiber business cases; "Mergers, acquisitions, and due diligence" covers operator mergers and tower sales; "Unit economics and subscription businesses" covers churn and lifetime value. See also the payments and fintech module for mobile money and the semiconductors and data centers module for network equipment and data centers.
An operator has an EBITDA margin of 45 percent and capex intensity of 30 percent. What is its operating free cash flow as a share of revenue?
Why do operators sell their towers to tower companies?
Which metric shows the share of homes passed by fiber that actually subscribe?
Sources for this lesson (10)
- GSMA: The Mobile Economy 2026 (official)
- Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026: 5G subscriptions top three billion (official)
- TelecomTalk: Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea ARPU in Q4 FY26 (January to March 2026)
- TelecomTalk: Bharti Airtel ARPU reaches INR 264, India EBITDA margin about 60 percent, in Q1 FY27, April to June 2026 (August 2026)
- Vodafone: completion of the Vodafone and Three merger in the UK (official)
- Vodafone: Vodafone to take full ownership of VodafoneThree (official)
- T-Mobile newsroom: T-Satellite with Starlink (official)
- Fiber Broadband Association and Cartesian: Fiber Deployment Cost Annual Report 2025
- Safaricom: Group revenue hits KES 414 billion with net income of KES 100 billion in FY26 (May 2026, official)
- Recognized public explanations of case-interview concepts and frameworks
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