The mobile technology industry is "bullish" about the market outlook for the sector as a whole, according to a recent poll.

Informa's annual Mobile Market Status report for 2007 found that 65 per cent of mobile industry professionals feel more confident about the prospects for 2007 than for 2006.

However, the survey of more than 1,800 mobile industry professionals warned that mobile operators do not share such a positive outlook as handset manufacturers and other equipment vendors.

Operators fear "challenging times ahead" as they battle to halt the slide in voice revenues and determine the best strategy as convergence takes hold.

Operators are having to reassess their business models in light of revenue pressures from several quarters.

Informa believes that many will start to consider moving from subscription-based services towards an advertising-based business model.

This view was backed up recently by Vodafone, which is teaming up with Yahoo to offer cheaper services for customers who accept adverts. 3G operator 3 has also announced mobile internet partnerships with firms such as eBay, Google and Skype.

"The telecoms industry is evolving at lightening speed, undermining and refashioning business models for all players in the value chain," said Mark Newman, chief research officer at Informa.

"In the future, a mobile business model could look much more like broadband and internet economics, with the operator charging for access to the internet and deriving advertising and click-based revenues."

Earlier in 2006 Informa predicted that mobile advertising would become an $11.35bn market by 2011.

Rather than growing average revenue per user (ARPU), most mobile operators would now acknowledge that the main aim of launching new mobile services and applications is to slow the slide in ARPU resulting from declining voice revenu es.

Almost half of the operators polled believe that 3G will be the most important technology in raising mobile revenues, and the shining star of mobile content in 2007 looks to be mobile TV.

Some 41 per cent of all respondents thought this would be the most interesting service on offer next year.

This optimism is reminiscent of the excitement felt around mobile music 12 months ago, and music has certainly had a major impact on the mobile handset market over the past year.

Two thirds of the survey respondents across the mobile sector selected integrated fixed and mobile operators as those best placed to profit from fixed-mobile convergence, but the voice telephony future looks uncertain for mobile operators.

The dominance of the fixed-mobile operator is a likely scenario, but Informa believes that certain operators, particularly those competing against integrated fixed and mobile operator groups, will also increasingly see fixed-mobile substitution as an opportunity.

The "worst-case scenario" for mobile operators is the separation of access and services, where consumers access the internet through public Wi-Fi or Wi-Max and use applications such as Skype to make calls.

The arrival of dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi devices could mean that the bypassing of mobile operators becomes increasingly common in the future.

"Fixed-mobile substitution, convergence, wireless broadband and IP are fundamentally changing the dynamics of the mobile industry, but these trends will impact different markets at different times and to differing degrees," said Newman.

He predicted that in the regions where fixed-line residential telephony is entrenched (Europe, North America and developed Asia) fixed-mobile convergence and substitution will take root more quickly and have a greater impact on the market.

Likewise, markets with high broadband penetration will be quicker to see a more open approach to providing access to the internet than countries where mobile telephony is the de facto communications medium.

Informa observed that many markets are now saturated at greater than 100 per cent mobile subscription uptake, but that there are still real opportunities for growth in unsaturated major markets, including China, India, the Middle East and Africa.

"The only certainty about the mobile communications business is that mobile phone ownership in mid-to-high income countries is becoming a basic human need, " said Newman.

"And even in developing markets, governments are using mobile telephony as a key driver to develop their economies."