Information and communication technologies (ICT) has proven to be a key enabler of socioeconomic progress and development, enhancing productivity and therefore economic growth, reducing poverty and improving living standards in many ways. ICT is increasingly revolutionizing production processes, access to markets, and information sources together with social interactions. ICT also has an impact on government efficiency, fostering transparency and better communication and services with and to citizens.

Among these new technologies, mobile telephony takes a special place in view of its exceptional diffusion in the last decade or so and its strong social and economic impact. In particular, mobile telephony has proven instrumental in raising prosperity and reducing poverty in developing countries, where it has boomed in recent years—thanks also to a number of facilitating factors, including an infrastructure fairly easy to deploy, a market generally open to new entrants, and the decreasing costs of mobile handsets and communication per minute, among others.