Mobile phones costing less than $15 will be available in developing countries by 2008, Motorola UK chairman Sir David Brown has predicted.

That price point could see another 100m people a year getting their first phones, he said, citing a London School of Economics report that a 10% increase in mobile penetration creates a 0.6% increase in gross domestic product – “in absolute terms that’s a huge number. It’s about a fifth of the average annual total global GDP growth.”