Economic growth: Access to affordable, high-quality broadband and cell phone services promotes development across all levels of an economy

[teleclick] The World Bank Group has released a new study exploring the relationship between technology and economic development, and concluding that access to affordable, high-quality broadband and cell phone services promotes development across all levels of an economy.

Every 10-percentage-point increase in high-speed internet connections results in an average 1.3-percentage-point increase in overall economic growth, the study suggests. Mobile technology, meanwhile, was found to be the single most powerful way of delivering information and services to hundreds of millions of people in remote and rural areas of the developing world.

“Internet users in developing countries increased tenfold from 2000 to 2007, and there are now over four billion mobile phone subscribers in developing countries,” noted the World Bank Group’s director for global information and communication technologies, Mohsen Khalil. “These technologies offer tremendous opportunities. Governments can work with the private sector to accelerate roll out of broadband networks, and to extend access to low-income consumers.”

Broadband and Mobile Technologies Integral to Economic Development