Analyst firm Boston Consulting reckons the mobile technologies industry was responsible for almost $3.3 trillion in revenues last year, and is responsible for 11 million jobs. However the study commissioned by Qualcomm also came to the conclusion that the challenges face by mobile players will require investment of $4 trillion over the next five years.

The report was based on a survey of 7,500 consumers in U.S., Germany, South Korea, Brazil, China, and India, which sought to quantify the value they derive from mobile. Among the data points it derived from this is that global consumers annually derive $6.4 trillion of benefit from mobile over and above what they actually pay for it.

They also surveyed 3,500 SMEs in those countries to get a sense of how mobile contributes to industry in general. It found that in those six countries mobile technologies directly contributed $1.2 trillion to their GDPs.

“Mobile has been a huge driver of economic growth, creating jobs and improving consumers’ lives,” said David C. Michael, senior partner and a co-author of the report. “But much more innovation is still needed. Policymakers have an important role to play in sustaining innovation and R&D investment in mobile technologies.”

“With mobile broadband connections expected to exceed 8 billion by 2020, the demand for additional capacity will continue to accelerate,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm. “Qualcomm is investing in the next generation of core mobile technologies so that consumers and businesses all over the world can continue to benefit from the new capabilities that come from breakthroughs in data rates and other advanced features.”

Studies such as these involve a large degree of extrapolation in order to arrive at their global data points and forecasts, and will always contain a degree of subjectivity. However the sums arrived at do at least serve to quantify the sheer scale and significance of the mobile industry and the amount of business that it will continue to drive.