Orange, the mobile phone operator, is preparing to unveil a partnership with Bebo that will let its 15.3 million UK customers access the popular social networking site on the move, The Times has learnt.

The tie-up — Bebo’s first with a mobile operator — will allow Orange customers to edit their Bebo profiles, update their blogs and find friends on the online “hang-out” without sitting at a personal computer.

The service, the latest in a series of alliances between cult internet brands and mobile operators, will start in Britain this summer, with extension to other markets expected later.

Bebo, which has amassed 31 million users in the two years since its launch, hopes that the link will enable it to extend its reach in its target audience of people aged 18 to 24.

For mobile operators such as Orange, the ability to market well-known PC applications can be a critical tool in attracting and retaining customers in fiercely crowded markets.

Such services are also aimed at stimulating uptake on the mobile of more lucrative “data” offerings instead of plain calls and text messaging. Orange is to market the Bebo service as a special data package.

Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile operator, recently unveiled a similar tie-up with the MySpace website, owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times. MySpace also has a partnership with Cingular, the American mobile operator. YouTube, the video-sharing website, recently signed a deal to distribute content over Verizon Wireless mobile phones.

Other British mobile operators are looking closely at social networking. O2 is understood to have been talking to Bebo and the Bebo/Orange partnership is not expected to stay exclusive in the long term.

Joanna Shields, president of Bebo, said: “The mobile phone is the ‘missing link’ for social networking.”

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