In a new study, Pioneer Consulting found that, much to the chagrin of the mobile industry value chain, a significant portion of the multimedia content on mobile phones is either user-generated or existing content that the user merely transferred or is storing on the phone.

As consumers increasingly share this so-called "user-originated content" (UOC), they effectively ignore the mobile content value chain. And, as more handsets come equipped with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functionality, they're bypassing the carrier networks as well.

According to Pioneer's "Multimedia Mobile Content Distribution" study, this can put some $16.4 billion in potential revenue at risk by 2012, a figure Pioneer says may equal more than a quarter of the total revenue opportunity for that year.

The report does offer suggestions to help operators avoid this potential revenue loss, such as adopting P2P technologies as a way to cut down on bandwidth bottlenecks and make content downloading faster and more user-friendly.