The use of social networking sites such as Facebook on mobile phones has soared.

The number of people accessing social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace on mobile phones is soaring according to recent research from Orange.

The digital media study, carried out by mobile operator Orange, reveals that demand for social network access on mobile phones has boomed, with an increase of 277% between June and October 2008.

The 3G mobile broadband customer base has also increased dramatically – up by 86% with 1.3 million customers added year on year.

Paul Jevons, Director of Products, Portals and Services for Orange, said: “The popularity of mobile internet continues to rise and our customers now use the service as part of day-to-day life”

Facebook, MySpace and Bebo dominate the social network scene online and have now successfully broken into the mobile phone internet market.

“Customers are increasingly spending their time accessing social networking via their mobile phones,” Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Product Management at Orange. “Since July Orange customers using social networking on their mobiles have increased by the over 40% and monthly pages by over 57% as awareness grows and customers increasingly use mobile social networking as part of their daily routine.”