Industry body says its members could help generate 25 million jobs over the next five years.
The GSM Association has joined other telecoms bodies in an appeal to the G20 summit, which is taking place in London this week.
The association says that far from asking for government bailouts like, say, the automobile industry, its members are looking to invest.
However, the GSMA has also stressed that for this to happen regulation must be relaxed and spectrum will need to be made available for next-gen services.
The EU, for example, is in the midst of a far-reaching package of reform that telcos argue will restrict their ability to invest in its current form.
In a letter submitted to the G20, 25 signatories (inc Nokia and DoCoMo) say that given the right conditions they could invest $550 billion to build mobile broadband networks, boosting global GDP by 3-4 per cent over five years.
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Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer at the GSM Association, told Reuters: "We're not looking for a bail-out. We're looking to invest... We believe we have the potential to connect 2.4 billion people to the Internet by 2013 via mobile."
