Orange First In UK With Interactive Mobile Phone Adverts

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Orange, a division of France Telecom, Monday said it is the first UK mobile-phone operator to offer interactive advertising to customers over their mobile phones.

Mobile phone advertising is increasingly seen as a growing revenue stream for operators, with Vodafone Group last month announcing its intentions to expand into the market.

Orange Monday began trials of interactive advertising through its Orange World mobile internet portal. It has signed advertising deals for this service with US-owned film distributor United International Pictures, Ford Motor's Jaguar, Peugeot and Microsoft's Xbox games console.

More than 20% of Orange customers, using specific Nokia and Samsung phones, will be able to view the interactive advertisements via the mobile internet portal.

A spokesman for Orange told Dow Jones Newswires that the total UK mobile marketing sector for all operators is expected to be worth GBP60 million in 2006, doubling to GBP120 million by the end of 2007.

The spokesman added that the company hopes in the future to offer increasingly targeted services to advertisers, allowing them to provide relevant advertisements based on customer profiles.

However, Orange said it had no plans to allow intrusive pop-up advertising over its mobile internet service, with customers instead having to click on adverts to view the marketing material.

Company Web site: http://www.orange.co.uk

-By Daniel Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9264; dan.thomas@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 7th August 2006