European mobile operators are reportedly in discussions about the introduction of adblocker technology, in an attempt to challenge the dominance of Google in the mobile ad market.
The Financial Times reports that at least one wireless carrier in the region has signed a deal with Israeli start-up Shine, whose shareholders include Hutchison Whampoa-chairman Li Ka-shing.
The technology blocks display ads, both web and in-app, but allows in-feed ad formats used by Facebook and Twitter.
An executive at a European mobile network said it would initially introduce the ad blocking service as an opt-in, but is considering a more dramatic approach, applying the settings across its millions of users.
Shine chief marketing officer Roi Carthy told the FT: Tens of millions of mobile subscribers around the world will be opting in to ad blocking by the end of the year. If this scales, it could have a devastating impact on the online advertising industry.
The aim is to challenge the position of stranglehold firms like Google, AOL and Yahoo have over the estimated $69bn global mobile advertising sector.
Only last week, US telecoms firm Verizon announced the $4.4bn acquisition of AOL in an attempt to muscle into the video and mobile ad space.
However, the industry is under threat from the development of software which prevents ads from being displayed.
Products such as Adblock Plus are becoming increasingly popular, with an estimated 150 million employing ad blockers of various kinds.
Read M&M Globals report on the growth of ad blockers from earlier this year: Digital publishers shine the spotlight on UX in the fight against ad blockers
