Alcatel-Lucent has given German carrier E-Plus the tools to inserts advertisements onto mobile devices based on demographic information provided by a subsidiary of the carrier, writes the New York Times.

Customers get extra minutes or texts on their phone plans in exchange for ads. Gettings, the E-Plus subsidiary collecting the information and delivering the ads, offers plans that send between 10-25 ads per week. Upon signing up for the program, customers are asked to check a number of topics that interest them and receive relevant pitches.

It remains unclear whether or not the service will resemble high-quality targeted advertising efforts delivered by Google based on search, or a lower end advertising, like when ISPs such as NetZero offered free dial-up in exchange for irritating pitches in the '90s.

Much will depend on the way it is handled: If the experience is unobtrusive and incentives are right, many people will probably accept ad-based mobile service as one way to do things, similar to what already happens on major search engines. Users will also have an immediate understanding of what exactly they will be getting, making it less used-cars salesman-like than other mobile advertising schemes.

The service could change the face of mobile services from data-rate plans, in which customers pay for such as texting and voice calls, to one in which carriers offer these services for free or at reduced rates to customers who sign up for ad programs.

Last week, it was reported that mobile advertising revenues in the US and Canada will grow from $208 million in 2009 to $1.5 billion by 2013, despite possible early consumer resistance to mobile ads.