A television-style ratings system is being devised for mobile phones in an attempt to encourage more companies to advertise on the devices.

Britain's big five mobile operators have joined forces for a trial aimed at giving advertisers a clear picture of who is surfing the mobile internet, which sites they look at and when they do so.

The data, which initially will focus on customers' habits on mobile phone “portals” such as Vodafone Live!, will be collected and audited by an independent third party in a system similar to the Barb television viewing and Rajar ratings systems.

The move by Vodafone, O2, Orange, 3 and T-Mobile is aimed at developing the nascent mobile advertising market. Informa Telecoms and Media estimates that the market could be worth more than £5.6 billion by 2011.

Google, the search engine group, argues that the possibilities of location-based search advertising offered by the mobile internet are “the re-creation of the PC story”, adding: “It is before us — and is very likely to happen in the next year.”

Advertising on the mobile internet takes the form of banner advertising similar to that on the fixed internet. Some mobile companies, such as 3, also offer advertising-funded music videos.

However, hurdles restraining growth include fear of annoying customers with unwanted advertising and spam. The industry has also only just agreed on a common format for advertisers.

Arun Sarin, the chief executive of Vodafone, told the Mobile World Congress last year that mobile companies had to move quickly to make their devices more amenable to advertisers by, for example, supplying the same type of standards as those used in television — or have their “lunch eaten” by the likes of Google.

Mr Sarin said then: “We need to rapidly define the most appropriate size of banner ads on a mobile screen, the length of video ads, reporting formats and consistent commercial frameworks to make our industry easier to do business with.”

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