Well, it’s finally here. Orange Israel is planning to offer their customers the option to reduce their phone bills by watching ads. I infered that this was going to happen a couple of months ago, which makes me sound all on the pulse and super-business-savvy, but really, it was pretty obvious. Advertising revenues have been proven so successfully online that it was really only a matter of time.

But will it actually work? Mobiles are personal devices. When I sit down at a computer to browse or a TV to view I’m entering the fray and I may be more willing to put up with messages from the outside world. Not so with my phone, it’s within a metre of me 24/7, I don’t step outside it’s reach, so I’m more sensitive to invasions caused by it. Traditionally my mobile phone has not been portal to outside content, but a link to a select group of trusted individuals, my friends, family and a select group of work contacts. These are people that I have spent a lot of time vetting and even then I sometimes groan when they ring :-). If somebody outside my mental whitelist calls me, more often than not the call finishes with “Can you remove my name from your database please.”

It seems that Orange are showing the ads only when people go out into the mobile net, in this case by playing a game, Celltrix, in the pilot at least. This will certainly keep the invasiveness of the ads to a minimum and so people will be more willing to sign up. This will be an interesting experiment though and I expect lots of eyes are on it, not least those of the GYM club.