More than 2.6 billion tickets will be delivered to 208 million mobile phone users by 2011, according to new research.

Analyst firm Juniper Research said that trials of the technology by mobile operators during 2007 are migrating into commercial services controlled by the ticket issuers.

The sector is gearing up for major launches over the next few years as more vendors recognise benefits such as reduced cost, better security against fraud and a paper-free environmental footprint.

Juniper Research predicts that early use of mobile barcode technology will be complemented by near-field communication technology which should start to create traction from 2009.

This will be particularly effective for the transport sector where there are already commercial deployments in the Far East and important trials taking place in Western Europe and North America.

The sector is already experiencing adoption by some of the major organisations that control the issuing of tickets, such as Ticketmaster, British Airways and Tickets.com.

Juniper calculates that mobile boarding passes could save the airline industry $500m a year.