to developing and newly developed areas such as India, China, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe where there are more opportunities for growth. Implementing expensive upgrades and expansions, the need for capital, and competi- tive pressures have fueled the strategy by carriers to grow by acquisition. The acquiring carriers are typically large conglomerates. The top 10 mobile carriers provide service for 42 percent of the world's mobile customers and the top 20 provide service to nearly 60 percent of subscribers, worldwide. Table 8-1 presents a list of the 20 largest mobile providers. In addition to mobile services, these carriers offer wireline Internet access and voice service to both business and residential customers. The Largest Mobile Carriers Worldwide Table 8-1 The Largest Mobile Providers, Worldwide (Courtesy Wireless Intelligence, April 15, 2011) Global Share of Top 20 Operator-Group Connections, Q4 2010 Ranking Operator-Group Share Cumulative China Mobile Vodafone Group Telefónica Móviles, SA América Móvil Group Bharti Airtel China Unicom Deutsche Telekom AG Reliance Communications France Telecom Group MTN Group Sistema Verizon Wireless Telenor Group AT&T Mobility Telkomsel (Telekomunikasi Selular) Vimpelcom Group WIND Telecom Group China Telecom Tata Teleservices Mobile Carriers Worldwide ASIAN MARKET Asia is a densely populated, diverse continent. It includes countries such as Bangla- desh, where per-capita income is extremely low, as well as highly developed countries such as Japan and South Korea, which each boast high per-capita incomes. Government policies in these two countries are major factors in the early development of advanced mobile services and the highest percentage of populations with fiber to homes world- wide. In both of these countries, the governments made spectrum available at low or no cost and subsidized widespread construction of fiber-optic networks. Interestingly, Japanese carriers earn close to half of their mobile revenue from data services. In most other countries, r