An increase in mobile use can raise the annual GDP rate in developing countries???

Growing up in in my rural village, I remember owning a phone was reserved for a few individuals - the village elite who could maintain it 'buy airtime'. I remember my uncle warning me against buying a phone from the savings I accrued from burning and selling charcoal (Before I realized the need for conserving tree). "A mobile phone will eat all your money" he told me. To drive the point home, he told me that unlike human beings who runs on ugali served with vegetables, phones will always need money in them in form of airtime and that they devours it faster than one earns. He then advised me to wait until am "rich" before I could afford to buy and maintain one.

"An increase in mobile penetration can raise the annual GDP rate in developing countries" Was a headline in one daily. Without looking at the content, my mind went back to what my late uncle told me and what am going through as a phone owner. In the context of my late uncle, this headline does not hold true but its no basis for dismissing. So the question is, what are the necessary conditions for this headline to be true? Leave your comments please

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