The growing smartphone presence and the rising usage of both on-net and off-net instant messaging will drive the Mobile Web 2.0 services over the $6 billion mark by 2012.

The report issued by Juniper Research (News - Alert) also found that monetizing Mobile Web 2.0 services is still posing a challenge, but that opportunity to do so exists for service providers across a range of business models, from subscription-based services to ad-funded solutions.

Currently revenues from presence-based services come almost exclusively from operator-billed mobile IM accounts.

Juniper indicates that two of the larger constraints on mobile VoIP traffic – the need for higher speed networks and the blocking of VoIP services by operators to protect their voice revenues will begin to ease as mobile broadband becomes more prevalent and new business models include VoIP services.

Report author Ian Chard observed “Since the use of IP delivers lower-cost calling rates, for international calls in particular, then as 3G service adoption gradually becomes more prevalent there is likely to be a marked migration of voice traffic across to mobile VoIP.”