Around 40% of people in the developing world now actively subscribe to mobile services, with many more having access to a mobile, if not direct ownership. Mobile access in these regions has outpaced the rate at which much of the population is gaining access to basic services such as electricity, sanitation, and banking. As such, there has been increased focus on the role mobile can play in improving social, economic and environmental development in emerging markets.

The mobile industry has made good progress in ensuring LTE spectrum harmonisation on a regional basis. However, it has only recently started tackling the challenge of developing an LTE smartphone that works worldwide. Such a device would improve economies of scale for both device manufacturers and operators, while nurturing global LTE roaming and triggering the faster adoption of LTE services.

3G and 4G technologies will account for half of all global mobile connections in five years, according to GSMA Intelligence forecasts.

Total global mobile voice minutes reached an estimated 1.6 trillion in 2010, a figure some ten times greater than the corresponding amount in 2001.

A major new study by GSMA Intelligence highlights how mobile operators were able to squeeze capital expenditure (capex) during the economic downturn in order to protect cash flows and maintain profits – but warns that network investments must increase if the industry is to fully exploit the potential of new technologies such as LTE.

Mobile operators in the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - are accounting for a rapidly growing share of global mobile revenue, and are on track to overtake the US in market size (revenue) by 2012.

Mobile social networking is becoming a key driver of mobile data revenue in several fast-growing - but low ARPU - markets in Asia-Pacific, according to new GSMA Intelligence research.

Efforts by national regulators to boost competition in their respective mobile markets have produced mixed results across the global industry, according to a new GSMA Intelligence report.

Pakistan has grown quickly to become the tenth-largest mobile market in the world, prompting numerous international operators to invest in the market. However, after many quarters of strong growth, the market saw a decline in the number of mobile connections in the last quarter of 2008. According to GSMA Intelligence data, connections shrunk by 0.33% in Q4, 2008, due mainly to declines at Mobilink, the market leader. On an annual basis, the market still grew by almost 17% but this was almost half the growth rate seen a year earlier

Norway-based Telenor is the world's eighth-largest mobile group in terms of connections with an operator footprint spread across the Nordics, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. According to GSMA Intelligence data, total mobile connections at the Group surpassed the 100 million mark for the first time in third-quarter 2008.

To gain a better understanding of the policies and interventions needed to accelerate connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa, this study maps mobile coverage and adoption in seven African countries at the highest possible resolution and simulates the effects of different policies on both the location of infrastructure and demand for mobile and internet services.

From the shape and size of markets to trends in consumer behaviour, we aim to provide food for thought through informative visuals designed to bring some colour and clarity to complex issues facing the industry. In this edition, we look at the meteoric rise of 4G in India against a financial backdrop that raises questions over the sustainability of the sector.

Consumers outside of the main urban centres in India will quickly account for the majority of 3G connections following the rollout of the first private 3G networks next year, according to new GSMA Intelligence research. But the study warns that the high cost of acquiring spectrum and rolling out the new networks into rural areas means that return-on-investment is not likely to happen until operators have tapped the mid-term market potential, which is estimated to take at least three years.

The Johannesburg-based Pan-African and Middle Eastern mobile group MTN has been the subject of feverish M&A speculation in the media over the last few weeks. India's Bharti has already held talks and this week another Indian mobile group, Reliance, also confirmed it has entered negotiations.