SPECIAL REPORT

The Mobile World Feature Article: mobile growth defies economic conditions
The world has changed a lot in the last few weeks. Subprime is looking more like a catastrophe than a fiasco while the ghost of the old Soviet Union has been clearly visible in Georgia and elsewhere. All of a sudden, we all feel far less secure and far less confident. A few weeks ago in these pages we concluded that the outlook for the global mobile industry was positive despite the economic troubles. But does the spectacular collapse of Lehman Brothers and the resulting financial aftershock change that outlook? We don't think so and we are not convinced that there is much, if any, link between the investment bankers' doomed attempts at financial alchemy and the quotidian need for communication. The numbers coming out of the industry just don't support that hypothesis.

VIEWPOINT

Can telecoms ride out the storm?
It's not over yet, but this week is shaping up to be one of the worst in living memory. The collapse of Lehman Brothers, the shock takeover of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, the bailout of US insurer AIG and Lloyds TSB's rescue of HBOS as well as questions over the long-term viability of heavyweights such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, has left the world and its markets reeling.