This report shines a light on informal economic opportunities created directly in the mobile industry value chain. Between December 2020 and February 2021, GSMA Mobile for Development conducted interviews and surveys with young people in six Sub-Saharan African countries working directly and informally in the mobile industry.

The mobile industry in Latin America continues to play a crucial role in the response to Covid-19. Mobile networks have enabled social and economic activities to continue. People have relied on the internet to stay connected to friends and family, access educational and health services, and work remotely. This has driven mobile data traffic to new levels.

The vital role that the mobile industry plays came into sharp focus during the Covid-19 pandemic. North American operators have been proactive in reaching out to their customers, working with public authorities and third parties to provide a range of vital services, and supporting the communities in which they operate.

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity report is the annual flagship publication of the Connected Society programme since 2018. This report provides the mobile industry and other stakeholders with a comprehensive overview of the trends in global connectivity, as well as insights on key barriers to mobile internet adoption and use, to inform progress towards closing the coverage and usage gaps.

The mobile industry in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to play a crucial role in the response to Covid-19. Mobile operators have implemented measures to support vulnerable communities including offering discounts on mobile tariffs and providing digital content and tools to help people and businesses get online. By the end of 2020, 495 million people subscribed to mobile services in Sub-Saharan Africa, representing 46% of the region's population – an increase of almost 20 million on 2019.

This sixth edition of this report looks at the increased impact the mobile industry has had on achieving the SDGs in the last year and explores what more it needs to do to reach these ambitious goals. It also examines the role the mobile industry has played during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The European mobile industry has been instrumental in keeping consumers and businesses connected throughout the pandemic, despite changes in data consumption patterns and demand. In 2020, 472 million people in Europe (86% of the population) subscribed to mobile services. Looking forward, 5G has the potential to deliver a significant amount of value to the region.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the digital landscape in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region and elsewhere around the world. Though the situation remains challenging in many CIS markets, the mobile sector is taking measures to help society recover and to build more resilient economies.

Mobile has been instrumental during the Covid-19 outbreak and will be even more integral to the way people live and businesses operate post pandemic. Across Asia Pacific, operators are using the exceptional scale and utility of mobile networks and services to facilitate innovative digital solutions for enterprises in line with Industry 4.0 objectives. In particular, 5G and IoT will play key roles in the implementation of digital transformation projects across different industries.

Successfully increasing levels of mobile internet coverage, adoption and usage means adopting a data-driven approach to policymaking, with priorities determined by a country's local context and level of digital development. The GSMA's Mobile Connectivity Index (MCI) facilitates this type of data-centric analysis and evidence-based decisions. This report provides guidelines for policymakers on how to use the MCI to understand where to focus efforts in order to drive increased mobile internet coverage, adoption and usage.

The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2021 highlights how the mobile gender gap continues to improve in South Asia, but less so in other regions. It explores the key barriers preventing women's equal access to mobile internet as well as the rise of women's smartphone ownership, notably in India.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the health and livelihoods of individuals and communities around the world. Mobile has been particularly instrumental during this period, keeping people connected and underpinning new services in response to the pandemic. By the end of 2020, 5.2 billion people subscribed to mobile services. There will be nearly half a billion new subscribers by 2025, most of which will come from Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2020, mobile technologies and services generated $4.4 trillion of economic value added globally. This figure will grow to nearly $5 trillion by 2025 as countries increasingly benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by the increased take-up of mobile services.

Despite the investments of the telecoms sector to expand 4G mobile broadband coverage, 4G is yet to emerge as the dominant form of mobile technology in Bangladesh. This suggests a lag between 4G coverage rollout and usage of 4G services. The lag is largely explained by issues related to the affordability of devices, low levels of knowledge and digital skills, a perceived lack of relevance, and safety and security concerns.

One of the most remarkable contributions of mobile connectivity to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 is the use of advanced and innovative digital solutions to support various response measures. Across China, mobile networks, and 5G in particular, have supported frontline healthcare efforts to stem the rate of infections while also enabling remote business operations to comply with social distancing rules.

The GSMA and the World Bank have developed a study to analyse the welfare impact of mobile broadband based on data from Nigeria, the largest mobile market and economy in Africa. The analysis shows that the deployment of mobile broadband infrastructure has played a significant role in increasing household welfare and reducing poverty in Nigeria.

This paper provides new evidence on the relationship between mobile money regulation and usage. It combines data from the Mobile Money Regulatory Index, a comprehensive assessment of mobile money regulations, and the Global Findex Database 2017. The analysis covers almost 50,000 individuals across 46 countries and finds compelling evidence that an enabling regulatory framework is strongly associated with higher mobile money usage.

The mobile industry in Latin America has risen to the challenge of sustaining social and economic activity in the region during the pandemic, despite unprecedented growth in data traffic. Mobile technologies and services generated 7% of GDP in Latin America in 2019 - a contribution that amounted to more than $421 billion of economic value added.

The mobile industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has largely risen to the challenge of sustaining social and economic activities in the region during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the unprecedented growth in data traffic. However, Covid-19 has also highlighted the impact of the digital divide for the large number of people in the region still unable to connect to mobile internet. With digital connectivity expected to play an even more central role in society post Covid-19, it is more important now than ever before to address the barriers to mobile internet adoption and usage in the region.

This report explores the role that mobile and digital technologies can have on economic growth as 5G begins to enable a new wave of economic transformation. It provides novel evidence of the impact of mobile during the last two decades, a period which covers most of the rollout of three generations of mobile technology in both developed and developing countries.

This latest report from GSMA Intelligence highlights how 4G became the CIS region's leading mobile technology in 2020 and will account for 65% of total connections by 2025. With lower cost handsets increasingly available across the region, smartphone adoption is set to reach more than 80% by 2025. With Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia expected to launch 5G during 2021, and 5G networks in the region's other nine markets set to go live by 2025, GSMA Intelligence forecasts that there will be 52 million 5G connections across the CIS region by 2025.