Facebook top of Vodafone's mobile web

The social networking craze is helping to drive mobile broadband, says Vodafone UK.

The top two searches on the operator's mobile internet service - which launched last summer - are social networking websites Facebook and Bebo. Community-based auction site eBay came next.

Facebook is also the most visited site for Vodafone mobile broadband users, followed by Google and the BBC. Bebo is fifth in the ranking, while MySpace is eighth.

Vodafone said it has seen growth in consumers' appetite for email, IM and social networking via mobile broadband, along with the likes of Google search and user-generated video site YouTube.

The operator announced it has tweaked its monthly price plans to include unlimited internet access (subject to a 'fair usage' policy of 500MB per month), meaning every plan automatically includes web access and pay monthly customers no longer need to pay extra for an internet bundle.

This is not the first move Vodafone has made to encourage mobile broadband usage. Back in February the operator slashed the cost of a 3GB mobile broadband price plan in half for a promotional period.

Last month, BlackBerry-maker RIM announced more than a million downloads of a Facebook app for its smart phone in the five months since launch.