Mobile marketing provider Upstream commissioned YouGov to conduct the poll, quizzing 2,198 adults about mobile marketing.
Of those polled, 72% said they would be likely to leave an operator serving third-party ads and 21% claimed they would do so immediately. Nine-tenths (88%) said it was "unacceptable" for operators to serve third party ads.
However, 66% said they would opt in to receive third party ads if incentives such as offers or discounts were used – 27% said £5 off their weekly bill would be welcome, and 22% favoured one-fifth off their bill.
Alex Vratskides, chief executive of Upstream, said: "It's clear that by using the mobile medium itself, a great opportunity exists for operators to cross and upsell their own products and services at minimal expense.
"As they are not promoting third parties, operators have de facto opt-in. They also have an enormous amount of customer data pre-gathered as well as an in-depth knowledge of their own products – all of these factors can allow them to be highly targeted in their promotions."
However, confidence in third parties is an issue. 52% trust their operator, but 8% would trust third parties. Consumers are also unlikely to want to be overburdened with messages – 38% said once per month was an acceptable limit, but 31% said they wanted less contact than that.
Just 14% said they would be happy to be contacted twice per month, but the ABC1 group was less keen (8%) then the C2DE group (20%).
Vratskides said: "Many in the industry have been talking about how operators can partner with third-party advertisers to boost their revenues but it's clear that this approach is fraught with risk.
"To create opt-in databases, you inevitably have to heavily incentivise customers with discounts, but the truth is bribery has no long-term value – it simply creates 'phantom' customers who are only interested in getting money off their bills.
"Looking at the number of customers who say they would switch operator as a result of receiving third-party advertising, it seems fair to say that opt-in databases are a false economy.
"Operators are the guardians of marketing contact with their customers. If they abuse their position, it can only lead to customer churn."
. Registered users receive a range of promotions including discounts, limited offers, money off and free trailers.
In addition, O2 and Orange are investing heavily in the ability to serve ads based on a user's physical proximity to a brand's outlet.
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