The mobile advertising sector has been red hot over recent months thanks to consolidation with the likes of AdMob buying AdWhirl, and in turn being bought by Google. Apple just bought Quattro Wireless too.

Now another mobile ad company Smaato has revealed some interesting, if unspecific data, about how well these ad networks operate.

It has access to this information as its SOMA technology aggregates adverts from more than 34 mobile networks worldwide.

During December 2009, it notes that the best networks had a fillrate of 77 percent while the tenth best only had a fillrate of 26 percent. Overall the average fillrate was 35 percent.

In this case, fillrate is defined as the percentage of ads delivered per ad request.

In contrast to these worldwide metrics, Smaato also looked at rates in the US. This is a much more mature market with an average fillrate of 55 percent.

The top networks - named in this case as Quattro Wireless and Millennial Media - had fillrates of 83 percent, while the tenth best was down at 23 percent.

[source: Smaato Metrics]