Mobile phone operator Orange has announced a deal with popular social networking site Bebo to allow its 15.3 million customers to access the service while on the move.More than 31 million people have registered with Bebo since its launch in 2005 and the company will be hoping that the deal helps it to reach its core 18 to 24-year-old audience.
"The mobile phone is the 'missing link' for social networking," said Bebo head Joanna Shields.
From this summer, Orange users in the UK will be able to edit their Bebo profiles, chat to other users in the site's forums and update their blogs via internet-enabled mobiles.
The service is expected to be extended to other markets soon after. Adding unique PC applications to their services can offer mobile providers an edge in the competitive internet-enabled market.
They are also crucial to spurring take-up of lucrative data transfer services among users more reliant upon traditional calling and SMS messaging.
MySpace has agreed a partnership deal with Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile operator, and with US operator Cingular. Google's YouTube signed a similar deal with Verizon Wireless in November last year.
The Orange deal is also not expected to remain exclusive for long. Bebo is understood to have been in discussions with O2, and other networks are known to have taken an interest in social networking partnerships.
