The GSM Association (GSMA) and comScore, in partnership with operators O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK, have announced the official UK launch of the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) product, a census-level solution for mobile media reporting. Taking irreversibly anonymised mobile Internet usage data from all five UK mobile operators, the service aims to provide comprehensive insights into mobile media consumption, empowering brands and agencies to plan effective and focused campaigns for the mobile medium.
On behalf of our operator partners, comScore and the GSMA, we are excited to be launching Mobile Media Metrics in the UK, our first market, and we anticipate that it will accelerate growth in the mobile advertising market, says GSMA CEO, Rob Conway. The underlying principle of Mobile Media Metrics is to deliver valuable and actionable reporting tools to the media industry, while respecting the privacy of individuals. Access to transparent measurement is essential in establishing mobile as a legitimate advertising medium, and Mobile Media Metrics is a critical element in advancing this process.
The GSMA Mobile Media Metrics service is based on anonymised, census-level data for mobile Internet usage across mobile networks, which is augmented with demographic data that has been collected with the consent of a representative sample of mobile Internet users. The service provides an aggregated view of mobile Internet usage behaviour, enabling market-level analysis of site visitation and engagement metrics, such as page views, time spent on specific sites, and device types and features.
The initiative undertaken by the GSMA and comScore is a great step forward for mobile media, says Richard Foan, Managing Director of ABCe and Chair of JICWEBS. Based on ABCes independent validation of Mobile Media Metrics, advertisers, agencies and media owners can rest assured that key metrics are compliant with and endorsed by the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS).  Based on pre-production data from three operators, as the operators ramp up to full delivery of anonymised data to comScore, 16 million people in the UK accessed the Internet from their mobile phones in December 2009, viewing a combined total of 6.7 billion pages and spending an aggregate of 4.8 billion minutes online during the month. The top 10 sites accounted for 70% of both total pages viewed and total time spent online on mobiles during the month.
The top 10 sites and number of visitors were:

1. Facebook.com (5 million)
2. Google sites (4.6m)
3. Telefonica Mobile Networks (3.7m)
4. Orange Sites (3.6m)
5. Vodafone Group (3.3m)
6. Yahoo! Sites (2m)
7. BBC Sites (1.9m)
8. Microsoft Sites (1.6m)
9. Apple (1.5m)
10. Nokia (1.1m)

When viewed by the number of minutes spent on the site, the list looks pretty similar, but AOL (including Bebo),makes it in at No.5, and Flirtomatic is in at No.9. Telefonic and Nokia do not feature in the top 10 by minutes spent on the site.
GSMA MMM Core Reports is the foundation of comScores GSMA MMM suite of reports on mobile browsing. Full production data for the MMM Core Reports will be released in March 2010 based on February data. The GSMA and comScore say they are planning a full complement of additional MMM products to measure mobile usage of applications, search, reach and frequency, ad tracking, and ad effectiveness, as well as linkage of the MMM database to Kantar Medias Target Group Index (TGI). The MMM service will also be expanded to include wi-fi traffic through site-centric measurement of publishers and ad networks sites, using comScores Media Metrix 360 solution, for a de-duplicated view of the online and mobile Internet. comScore says that pre-production data for January from four operators will be delivered later in February 2010, and that full production data from all five operators is anticipated early in Q2 2010.
All the operators are, not unnaturally supportive of the initiative. For 3UK, Neil Andrews, Head of Portal Advertising, says: Network operators have long sought the independent verification which will allow them to monetise mobile Internet usage on their networks. Media buyers have also been excited about mobile for years, but have never had access to the independent statistics to justify large ad spend; hopefully Mobile Media Metrics will change all this. 3 is very excited about the opportunity provided by this initiative and we look forward to helping media buyers generate a higher ROI through the use of mobile advertising.