Mobile ownership in the UK, representing the number of unique mobile owners as opposed to actual accounts, has passed 45 million, or 84 % of the population. Data and profit optimization, rather than subscribing the remaining 16% represents the long term growth scenario for the UK?s mobile industry.

With O2, Vodafone and Orange generating nearly 75% of the market revenues, pricing strategies combined with ongoing support for data services by these operators has averted the potential ?race to the bottom? feared by market analysts as a result of an increasing number of new entrants.

Blended ARPU will increase by 6.2% in 2007 to $40.7 pcm, with 20-29 year-olds spending the most on contracts and data services. Currently, data represents 19.3% of revenue in 2006, rising to 24.4% of all revenues in 2007 - an increase of 5.1% since 2004. Falling unit prices have combined with an increasing trend to bundle data and messaging into contracts to slow overall data revenue growth.

Beyond messaging, mobile music services provide the most revenue growth for the UK operators, accounting for $351 million in 2006, with mobile games behind at $98 million.