Newspaper publisher Archant has launched three trial news websites for mobile phones to test consumer use and advertising opportunities.

They are now live and feature news from the Norwich Evening News, Ilford Recorder and Norfolk football website The Pink’Un.

Initially, the sites are being trialled for six months but Tim Youngman, Archant’s head of digital marketing, told HTFP that feedback had already been so positive that further sites would most likely be rolled out in the first quarter of 2010.

They have been created by mobile agency Bluestar which built and manage the m-sites for The Times, Guardian, The Sun, Independent, Daily Telegraph and The Mirror.

The sites have been developed and formatted to work on any mobile phone with internet access and offer the majority of the content currently available via their respective main websites.

Unique mobile-only content is also offered such as free downloads of ringtones and wallpapers which change weekly to encourage repeat visits while local advertisers have been signed up for sponsorship deals.

Tim said: “Current research shows that the UK is the third largest users of the mobile internet in the world behind Japan and South Korea.

“This has been driven by the large growth of smart phone devices such as the iPhone which allow people to easily access the internet whenever they want.

“Traffic to the national brands like The Sun show there is a huge level of consumer demand for mobile sites. The fantastic response from our local advertisers shows the scale of opportunity this new channel brings to Archant.”