O2 in mobile internet push

Customers of mobile phone operator O2 will be able to update their Facebook and MySpace profiles using their mobile phones for free in November and December.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo have proved a massive hit with computer users. The mobile phone companies, battling with declining prices for texts and phone calls, are hoping they will prove equally popular as a way of persuading customers to use the mobile internet.

In an attempt to get them to experiment with using the web on a mobile phone, O2 will let all its customers who can access its O2 Active service log on to Facebook and MySpace for free for two months.

Up to 16 million of the company’s 17.8 million customers have phones that can use the O2 Active service.