The GSM Association is delighted to act in partnership with Ovum in producing a series of research papers to show the global economic and social benefits of GSM.

These reports use a framework originally developed for Vodafone to quantify the supply side economic impact of a developed country's mobile services industry through a value chain model. They provide estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) contribution, employment effects and government revenues generated by the mobile industry in two regional geographies representing the developed and developing markets, Europe and India.

The economic contribution of mobile services in the European Union before its 2004 expansion

The economic benefits of mobile services in India

An important aspect of the GSM Association socio-economic benefits programme is to collect better data on the global contribution of the mobile services industry. Therefore, GSM Association Members are encouraged to use this framework developed by Ovum in their own country analysis and to share their findings with the GSM Association to allow for improved accuracy in global aggregation.

The Ovum model is designed for use in a developed country where distribution of services and terminals is carried out using independent dealers and service providers. While the model is not intended for use in developing countries, where there is often extensive employment in extended formal and informal dealer networks, the GSM Association and Ovum believe that it could be adapted for such markets.

To find out more about Ovum, please visit http://www.ovum.com.