Perhaps I should be skeptical, given that this is a company-funded study with a result favorable to the company that funded it.

But the evidence is just too compelling. The cure for the Digital Divide is the mobile phone, and the results are so obvious no big subsidies or taxes are needed to make the change happen.

Here are some facts that really jumped out at me:

• A developing country with 10 more mobile phones per 100 population between 1996 and 2003 had 0.59 percent higher GDP growth than an otherwise identical country.
• In Uganda mobile phone penetration is about four percent yet nearly 80 percent of the population use phones
• Mobiles have a 'social halo' effect and are being used as a community amenity. Over half of mobile owners in South Africa allow family members to use their handset for free and a third do the same for friends.
• There are now more than 82 million mobile users in Africa.

The impact of all this on the developed world has only started to be felt. Closing the digital divide and bringing everyone into the world economy will be the most profound economic change in our childrens' lifetimes.