Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), which operates 3 mobile, provides free access to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn as it attempts to take advantage of the growing popularity of smartphones and social networking.

The scheme, which is applicable to new postpaid voice contracts (existing customer may opt to start new contracts), only provides access within Australia. Users can access the free sites through 3 mobile's "Planet 3" portal, "mobile web" or the official handset applications of Web sites.

"Three wants to offer Australian customers the freedom of socialising on the go, without having to worry about data costs and download limits. With our new offer of free social networking, people never need to miss another status update again," said Amanda Hutton, VHA's general manager of Internet and services.

The company says that Facebook use on 3 mobile increased by 301% between June 2009 and May 2010. Twitter users, on the other hand, rose by 1600% between October 2009 and March 2010.