Mobile operators will be watching cautiously on Wednesday when Nokia declares an important strategic shift with the announcement of an online music service intended to rival Apple’s iTunes.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of the Finnish handset maker, will offer details of the new worldwide service in London at a lavish event to include a concert featuring Grammy-winning musicians at the Ministry of Sound nightclub.

Nokia’s music service will be a new rival for mobile operators’ own music offerings, many of which have failed to gain traction in the market. Most mobile music users simply “sideload” music from their computer direct to their handset.

According to data published by M:Metrics, the research company, of the approximately 36m people who listened to music on their mobile phone from April to June in the US and Europe’s five biggest markets, fewer than 14 per cent had downloaded from an operator portal.

The announcement follows news in June Nokia was to make its services division one of the group’s three core businesses – the first time it had been recognised as a separate unit.

The launch will be the most substantial push Nokia has made into offering online services since it opened the Club Nokia website – offering games, ringtones and other content – in 1998.

Club Nokia was forced to keep a low profile after concerns were raised by important mobile operators such as Vodafone, which intended to launch their own music and entertainment services.

Nearly 10 years later, the era of deferring to mobile operators may be over.

If mobile operators feel threatened by the music service, they may shun Nokia’s new flagship music handset, the N81, which is also expected to be unveiled on Wednesday as a competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

However, Nokia said it had had “very positive discussions” with operators about the planned music service, and was “confident it could reach agreement” with them. “The N81 is not part of our current plan but we wouldn’t rule out carrying it in the future,” said 3, which runs one of the UK’s most successful music services.

Apple is also understood to have negotiated highly favourable terms with network operators wishing to include its iPhone handset in their portfolios, another sign of the waning power of operators.

“It has become clear that mobile operators don’t have the first idea about how to create services,” says Richard Windsor, telecommunications analyst at Nomura. “They have no user loyalty and no brand power, which is why they have had to make strong concessions to Apple”.

Nokia’s music site will be based on Loudeye, the US online music company that Nokia bought for $60m last year. Loudeye has a music library of about 1.6m tracks; fewer than the 5m held by iTunes and Napster’s more than 3m.

Nokia has been experimenting with mobile music in a low-key way since last autumn, when it launched a website called Music Recommenders.

Nokia is also likely to announce other online services. Last month, the mobile handset maker bought Twango, the social networking site, for an undisclosed sum. This month it launched – without much fanfare – a content-sharing website, Mosh, designed for mobile handset users.

It has also announced deals to bring new titles to its N-Gage mobile phone games service.

Nokia may not be the only handset maker to shift into services. Sony Ericsson, which sold 60m music phones last year, has also dabbled in music services, with the launch last year of M-Buzz, which features artists from the Sony BMG label. Miles Flint, chief executive of Sony Ericsson, has hinted there could be more to come.

Analysts say a broad shift into services may be necessary for mobile equipment companies as revenues from hardware sales begin to fall.

Many reckon it could be difficult for handset makers to compete with more established internet companies. But it could pay off in the long run.

“These services are not going to have a massive impact on Nokia’s balance sheet this year or next – but they have an eye for the long term,” said Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight.

“The web will inevitably become a more important part of people’s lives and they need to at least have a seat at the table.”

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