A report from telecom industry analysts Wireless Intelligence indicates the Vodafone Group is the 2nd largest mobile operator in the world with 386.88 million connections, and Bharti Airtel is 4th with 250.04 million connections.The report, dubbed ‘Top 20 Mobile Operator Worldwide Group Global Ranking by Connections for the Second Quarter of 2012 (Q2, 2012)' also showed the telcos' performance on revenue.It indicated MTN recorded some 14% growth in subscriptions but dropped one place from the top ten to the 11th position with 136.59 million connections by the end of the second quarter of this year.Vodafone maintained the second position from last year, but Airtel was the only top ten operator in Africa which moved one place up from 5th to 4th on the back of some 13% growth in subscriptions.Meanwhile, China Mobile continues to be at the top spot with 683.08 million connections and America Movil Group came 3rd ahead of Airtel with 251.83 million. Telefonica Group is 5th with 243.51 million connections worldwide.Others in the top ten are China Unicom, 6th position with 219.25 million subscriptions; VimpelCom Group, 7th with 205.05 million connections; Reliance Communication at 8th position with 154.6million subscriptions; Telenor Group is 9th with 152.74 million connections and China Telecom in 10th with 144.18million connections.It is significant to note that whereas lots of the emerging markets operators recorded very high number of connections, their revenues were significantly lower than their counterparts in Europe and in the United States, which are in and outside of the top 10.