It looks like Korean mobile phone manufacturer LG is set to be announced as the winner of a contract according to which the company is to produce mass-market 3G handsets.

LG is expected to be awarded the contract to produce affordable 3G handsets at the 3GSM mobile phone conference in Barcelona next week.

Twelve mobile phone networks that have a combined customer base of approximately 620 million users have committed to distributing the affordable handsets.

This is a huge step for LG as this will surely mean a gaining market share from rivals such as Nokia. LG is currently ranked fifth mobile phone manufacturer in the world and has shipped nearly 15 million phones.

Up until now, LG have mainly focused on stylish higher-end handsets such as the LG Chocolate that have been greatly successful on the market and we have yet to see whether LG can pull the same kind of success with a more affordable 3G phone.

There are over 2.26 billion GSM mobile phone users, while only 100 million currently own a 3G phone. By distributing LG's affordable 3G handsets, the twelve operators hope to record higher sales. A similar program was launched at 3GSM two years ago.

While LG can in fact become quite popular on the lower end market, rival Motorola will also have some affordable handsets to offer and other mobile phone manufacturers are slowly starting to launch their own affordable handsets as well.

The winner LG mobile phone is supposed to include a camera, Bluetooth for connectivity and a web browser, and although not being the cheapest handset in the competition it did represent the best value for money.