Released on = October 19, 2006, 1:34 am

Press Release Author = InfoCom GmbH

Industry = Telecommunications

Press Release Summary = In the Teleseeq study for the top-20 telecoms companies in
2Q06, MII China group ranked number one in terms of proportionate subscribers,
followed by Vodafone and Telefonica. About 4 countries from Asia have joined the
list but majority of the companies listed in the top-20 are Western European
incumbents who have holdings in other locations such as Eastern Europe and Asia.

Press Release Body = Stuttgart, Germany - 19th Oct 2006 - InfoCom Top-20 telecom
groups takes into account the number of subscribers (fixed, mobile and Internet)
based on the group's proportionate shareholding in other companies (see Fig. 1). For
2Q06, MII China group outranked number two Vodafone by a substantial lead of about
460m subscribers, for a total of 665m subscribers, which are all based in China. The
majority of the subscribers are still from fixed line companies that come from MII
China's holdings in China Telecom and China Netcom, while MII China's mobile
subscribers can be attributed to its 75% holding in China Mobile.

Vodafone and 3rd place holder Telefónica have a wider reach in terms of territories:
both have subscribers based in Western and Eastern Europe. Vodafone has holdings in
Western and Eastern Europe as well as the US, with the markets that have
proportionate subscribers totalling 20m and above being Germany, Italy and the US.
Telefónica has shareholdings in Latin American companies but has reached Eastern
Europe through its purchase of Cesky Telecom in 2005 and other Western European
countries through its acquisition of O2. Deutsche Telekom also has a number of
holdings in Eastern Europe, some of which are incumbents (e.g. Croatia's T-Hrvatski
Telecom and Hungary's Magyar Telekom) and has mobile and Internet operations in
Western Europe and North America (e.g. T-Mobile Germany, UK and USA) to make it
reach 4th place with about 168m subscribers.

Other Western European incumbents that have made it to the list are France Télécom
(7th), Telecom Italia (11th), Telenor (12th), TeliaSonera (15th), Portugal Telecom
(19th) and BT (20th).

Another company, apart from MII China or China Unicom, that made it into the top-20
without having overseas operations is MIT India, which managed to reach 13th place.
Although its overall population is close to China's, India, in terms of fixed line
or mobile subscribers, still is significantly behind China. Rounding off the list is
BT, which has about 37m proportionate subscribers in 2Q06, replacing 1Q06's 20th
place holder Turkcell.

Please visit http://www.infocom-de.com/pressarchives/press_191006.html to see the
graph.
Title: Top-20 telecom groups based on proportionate subscribers in millions at 2Q06

About InfoCom
InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with almost 20 years experience
providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the
telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom's independent and
fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers
to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage.
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Dimitra Gialama
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Fax: +49 711 870510-10
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