A new study by Nielsen Online has found that mobile Internet usage in the UK grew by 25% between the second and third quarter this year.
The study revealed that the number of UK consumers accessing the mobile Internet rose from 5.8 million to 7.3 million in the period, while those accessing the internet from a PC rose by just 3%, from 34.3 million to 35.3 million.
The mobile internet audience has a higher concentration of younger users than those accessing the internet via PC, the study found, noting that 25% of mobile Internet users are aged 15-24, while they only account for 16% of PC-based users.
'The fact that almost seven and a half million Britons now access the Web through their phone shows that mobile Internet is fast becoming a viable way for advertisers and publishers to reach important demographic groups,' said Kent Ferguson, Nielsen senior analyst.
The study also found that while Google Search is the most popular PC-based internet site, on mobile BBC News is the most popular, visited by 24% of the UK's mobile internet consumers (1.7 million people).
Other websites that were found to have a greater reach on mobile than PCs were BBC Weather (21% on mobile versus 17% PC-based), Sky Sports (11% on mobile vs 8%PC-based) and Gmail (9% on mobile vs 7% PC-based).