Volantis Systems released code for its Mobility Server content delivery platform to the open source community Wednesday to foster content creation for the world's 350 million mobile phones.

The Guilford, U.K.-based vendor said it's releasing the code under the GNU General Public License version 3. Volantis said it's the first mobile content delivery vendor to offer its software this way, and that the move is part of the company's drive into the enterprise market.

Its Intelligent Content Delivery software contains more than 1.2 million lines of code and represents seven years of development. The vendor made available its Mobility Server as a free download last November. By going the open source route now, it hopes to tap into the broader development community to build upon its work.

"The mobile Web is the next major growth point for online communications, but the ever-growing variety of mobile devices on the market makes it difficult to develop powerful Web applications," the company said in a statement. "Volantis Mobility Server makes it cheap and easy for companies to create this content and distribute it to the more than 5,000 mobile devices currently on the market."

And there's some evidence that big companies are more receptive to using open source products. Spanish carrier Telefonica recently created the OpenMovilForum, for example. "Open source software and independent developers are quickly becoming the most important movement in telecommunications industry," said Luis Almansa, a project manager for Telefonica.

Volantis has launched a Web site with information on open source Mobility Server, to allow contributor input and to help developers get started in the new environment.