And it has a respectable business plan: to provide telecom services to those parts of the world where wireless or fixed-line service doesn't really exist--Equatorial Africa and the upper reaches of the Amazon--or where it's inadequate, as in many areas of Africa, India and Latin America.

FORBES: Down To Earth

The oil revenues of Equatorial Guinea, where three-quarters of the population live below the poverty line, are a state secret.

ECONOMIST: Africa, oil and the West: Show us the money | The