What is the impact of mobile telephony on economic growth?

The mobile telecommunications sector continues to offer unprecedented opportunities for economic growth in both developed and developing markets, and mobile services have become an essential part of how economies work and function. In developed markets, recent years have seen booming usage in mobile data services accessed via smartphones, tablets and dongles. Mobile data has changed consumer expectations for wireless services products and has transformed the way in which people connect and work, which has the potential to further impact economic development. Against this backdrop, Deloitte, the GSMA and Cisco have joined forces to measure the impact of next generation mobile services on economic growth. The resulting analysis provides the first estimates of the impact of mobile data usage in developed markets, employing information on mobile data provided for this study by Cisco Systems based on their Visual Network Index (VNI). For developing markets, basic mobile services still dominate and mobile data is the next wave of advancement. As such, this study considers the key role that adoption of this technology has played in enhancing economic growth through increasing productivity. We intend to run this analysis on an annual basis as usage of mobile data services grows and more countries are included in the analysis, and we would welcome comments on our approach and conclusions. We look forward to your feedback as we continue to explore this fascinating topic.