Mobile phones -- spreading faster than any other information technology -- can improve the livelihoods of the poorest people in developing countries, a United Nations report released last week said.
But governments must design responsive policies to ensure that the benefits reach the broadest number in the most effective way, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said in its Information Economy Report.
Mobile phone subscriptions will reach five billion this year -- almost one per person on the planet, UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi told a news conference on the report.
Penetration in developed countries is over 100 percent, with many people having more than one phone or subscription.
In developing countries, the subscription rate is now 58 per 100 people, and rising rapidly, with the rate in the poorest Least Developed Countries (LDCs) up at 25 from only 2 per 100 a few years ago, UNCTAD figures show.
UNCTAD said the economic benefits of mobile phones, whose use in LDCs far outstrips technologies such as the Internet or fixed-line phones, go well beyond access to information.
Insight
Key findings of the Women and Mobile Report include:
• 93% of women reported feeling safer because of their mobile phone
• 85% of women reported feeling more independent because of their mobile phone
• 41% of women reported having increased income and professional opportunities once they owned a mobile phone
• Women in rural areas and lower income brackets stand to benefit the most from closing the gender gap
• Across all countries a woman is 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man. This figure increases to 23% if she lives in sub-Saharan Africa, 24% if she lives in the Middle East and 37% if she lives in South Asia
• Over the next five years women could account for two-thirds of all new subscribers
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