To promote it, PhoneEvents.com and m.PhoneEvents.com will give away free tickets worth up to $250 in a drawing of registered users. The one-stop event sites combine local and preferential listings with new purchasing technology that works even on a basic clam-style Web phone.

“The ticket promotion is how we’re kicking off the service nationally,” said Curtis Broome, founder/president of PhoneEvents.com, Oakland, CA. “We’ll also be doing co-marketing with a number of select venues in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Boston.

“We’re going to do a number of guerilla marketing programs, such as creating a fan club on Facebook and MySpace, a group on LinkedIn and Twitter, uploads to YouTube and Flickr, and Google ad words for geo-targeting,” he said. “Our service is location-based, and as users discover an application they easily have the ability to share through Stumble Upon, which will drive awareness for PhoneEvents.com.”

Although the mobile lifestyle is accelerating, the vast majority of mobile phones in use today still access the Web with the limited functionality that makes it difficult to complete a transaction without page loading errors or intolerably long delays.

New smartphones often come equipped with fully operational browsers, but previous cell phones and current lower-end handsets generally have restricted Web capabilities or limited online usage plans that make the Web experience difficult.

“Users can build a personal network, but it’s different than social network in that our service builds on familiar relationships,” Mr. Broome said. “Users can import contacts from Yahoo and Gmail, and we’ll be adding Hotmail and AOL shortly, so users can share information about event and ticket content with their friends in seconds.

“That viral element will drive a lot of awareness and lead to further adoption,” he said.

From now through November 1, consumers who complete a private profile indicating their event preferences either on their computers at http://PhoneEvents.com or on their phones at http://m.PhoneEvents.com will be entered to win two tickets worth up to $250 to a selected concert or event.

The ticket give-away to registered users will continue every 60 days on the service, which features one of the largest global event listings available online.

Consumers also can create their own events for public or private posting and distribute event information to their private lists.

PhoneEvents.com features both ticketed venues, including tickets to sold-out events and non-ticketed activities such as local nightclubs, restaurants, community festivals, special-interest groups and business seminars.

The mobile service provides access to all of the site’s EventsListings and MerchantListings by phone.

The mobile site at http://m.PhoneEvents.com is both handset and carrier independent. It features automatic browser detection, and no software downloads are required.

“Our ticketing promotion over the long term is going to prove to be very effective,” Mr. Broome said. “We’re going to continue to give away tickets every 60 days on an ongoing basis so users are more engaged in the service.

“Beyond that, we hope to tie in what users do as far as creating media on their own phone,” he said. “We encourage them to take their own photos and videos and upload them to YouTube and Flickr as part of the fan club and post them on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.”