The increase in revenue by Vodafone which announced that increasing use of the internet on mobiles led to a surge of nearly 50 per cent in the more lucrative data revenues at the mobile giant, to £1 billion in the first half of the year points to a trend that webmasters keen to reach as many people as possible with their online business, would do well to pay close attention to.

The profits from the use of mobile data traffic are going to send Vodafone’s full-year revenue well above forecast targets to £34 billion (approx. $68 billion) or maybe £35 (approx. $70 billion).

The reason all this is important is because for the first time there is significant consumer movement in accessing the internet on the move using mobile phones. Until recently this was just a pipedream. When consumers made use of data traffic it was text messages sent to each other. Now however with the advent of bigger mobile phone screens, greater resolution and faster connections the possibilities of mobile internet access are coming within reach.

This means that the potential of suddenly reaching an audience far greater than that of PC and laptop users is coming closer. This is exactly the direction that Google has also been taking with a long-term view of making mobile search and mobile internet accessibility as easy, for consumers, as possible.

This means that now is the time to start thinking of how to make a website accessible to 3G network browsers, the iPhone (irrespective of your personal feelings about it and its parent company), and general mobile internet access platforms like Vodafone’s.