How Adding More Mobile Susbscribers Will Drive Inclusive Growth

We all love our smartphones, especially when connected to modern high speed low cost wireless networks, such as a 4G LTE network. We take it for granted. Indeed our research shows that consumers place huge economic value on these connected devices. Moreover, lower income consumers and emerging markets residents place a much, much higher value on these devices, relative to their incomes. Yet many governments are doing remarkably little to speed up deployment of these mobile networks and their services. There is an enormous opportunity for a truly massive contribution to global inclusive growth, via a concerted effort to truly ensure advanced mobile communications services for all.

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Author: David Michael

David Michael is a Senior Advisor of the Boston Consulting Group, and Professor of Practice at UC San Diego's Graduate School of Global Policy and Strategy. Mr. Michael was formerly Senior Partner and Managing Director of BCG. He was based in Beijing from 2002-2013 and Hong Kong from 1996-2002, and has worked across Asia.  He founded and led the firm's Global Advantage Practice Area, and led the firm's Greater China practice. Mr. Michael is a member of the World Economic Forum, and has served on the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Market Multinationals since its founding in 2007, and he currently serves on the Global Agenda Council for New Growth Models, chaired by Nobel laureate Michael Spence. Mr. Michael is co-author of the book, The $10 Trillion Prize, Captivating the Newly Affluent of China and India, published by Harvard Business School Press. He is also the co-author of six Harvard Business Review articles and one MIT Sloan Management journal article related to strategy and emerging markets. He served on the strategy board of China Mobile Corporation from 2004-2009. Mr. Michael holds a B.A. in Economics Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University, where he was awarded the Ernest W. Arbuckle award. Mr. Michael was also a Rotary Scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  He lives in La Jolla, CA with his wife and three children.