In the quest to establish a profitable business model on Web 2.0, operators are taking their cue from the consumer behavior that drives this phenomenon.

In the environment known as Web 2.0, social media sites, wikis, blogs, video sharing, and a global range of web communities draw upon the end-user for their content and value. That’s because the web as you once knew it – a static, two-dimensional medium of one-way communication – has evolved into a dynamic space where end-users provide the intelligence, create communities, share files and communicate in entirely different ways.

Kate Bennett, head of Ericsson internet business, says this shift – dubbed Web 2.0 – is raising expectations about converged multimedia services and that operators need to decide which of their strengths they will leverage to add value to the fixed and mobile internet experience.

Enabled by device capabilities and the proliferation of wireless broadband, internet companies are charting their course for the mobile space, which is seen as the natural migration point for a generation of web users who expect global internet services wherever they are.

There are, by Bennett’s estimation, more than 200 internet-operator agreements worldwide, with more to come. Internet players place great value on the operator’s service layer, distribution and consumer data, she says. “Mobile will be a bigger part of their revenue and focus.”

Bennett says Ericsson is engaged in facilitating new partnerships between telecoms and some of the most influential Web 2.0 companies.

For example, through their UK Managed Services partnership, Ericsson and 3 developed the X-Series, a service launched in 2006 that brought Skype, Sling, Orb, Yahoo!, Microsoft Windows Live Messenger, eBay and Google to the mobile phone.

Many operators now offer Napster Mobile, a service co-developed by Ericsson so subscribers can simultaneously download music files to both their mobiles and PC.

“By leveraging their strengths, such as billing, bundling, support, location, convergence, data mining and quality of service, operators can differentiate between internet players with service-layer solutions to deliver new services and communications experiences,” Bennett says.

Bennett says Ericsson also is working with major internet companies to develop more packages like X-Series that make it easier for users to find services on the web. Ericsson also can manage connections between internet and telecoms that enable mobile video calling from major internet community web sites.

Ericsson’s solutions portfolio for operator-internet services includes services that converge internet experiences. Lifestore, for example, is a white label service enabling subscribers to have all video, photos, blogs and messages sent to a single page and to automatically post to YouTube, Facebook and Flickr, along with push-to-mobile capability.

Bennett says that whatever choices operators make, they still need to grow revenues in new areas created through the changing user relationship with the internet. Selling advertising, re-selling enablers like location to internet players through global brokers, and expanding into enterprise and payment are all options that Ericsson can help operators pursue, she says.

“Operators have huge opportunities in this area. They need to explore new sources of revenue and collaborations,” she says.