The present study explores effects of human development (as measured by the human development index, or HDI) on the wireless telephony operations. The novelty and contributions of the paper are: 1) HDI, as a proxy for human development, can be a predictor for analysing and forecasting wireless telephony use per capita; 2) the predictive capacity of HDI on wireless telephony expansion is found to be more than that of pure monetary indicators such as GDP per capita; 3) a lower density of fixed lines per capita is not associated with a higher mobile use per capita. The findings can be used both in academia for informing students about factors influencing mobile use, and in industry for analysis and decision making in companies in telecommunication sector as well as companies that rely on telecommunication technologies in their operations.
