In September 2006, Vodafone Italia and FASTWEB, Italy's largest broadband provider, teamed up to provide fixed broadband services to Vodafone's 26 million-plus mobile customers.

The business model the two companies created earned Vodafone Italia a top rating from Analysys, the British research house, in its report titled The World's Top Ten Non-Voice Services for Mobile Operators. Analysys looked at more than 100 different data services, eventually selecting 10 with a proven track record.

To qualify, the services had to be applicable in different market, says Alastair Brydon, a co-author of the report.

"We found that there was a recipe for success that was implemented by the companies that came out on top," he says. "They had a very clear focus, and wanted to make the service and everything associated with the service successful."

By teaming up with fixed internet providers, mobile operators can capture a slice of the lucrative and growing broadband market as their wireless data services mature and gradually boost average revenue per user, Analysys found.

For example, Vodafone, by joining forces with an ADSL broadband provider with a network built on a local, unbundled loop, was also able to deliver downstream data rates of up to 20Mbps - without having to make any additional investment.

Japanese operator KDDI's music service EZ Chaku-uta Full, which ranked seventh on the list, was also highlighted.

KDDI had its CDMA 2000 EV-DO network in place when it launched the service, which allowed customers to quickly download music from day one. The service gives users access to 100 web sites containing more than 400,000 available songs, along with extra features such as direct downloads of tracks played on the radio.

O2 UK's SMS offering came in second in the Analysys study.

Messaging is the most lucrative mobile data service today, and O2 UK leads the world when it comes to making money from SMS, Analysys reported. During the last quarter of 2006, the operator's average SMS revenue per user was a whopping USD 11.82.

Unlike many of its peers, O2 has been able to increase its SMS traffic without having to drop prices, through, among other tricks, SMS bundles and smart marketing.