The carrier has two main advantages over some of the other app stores emerging: the ability to bill directly to a subscribers account and the ability to pinpoint a user’s location. Billing has been an issue for mobile content as consumers don’t necessarily want to charge small amounts of money on to their credit cards. One of the selling points of Nokia’s Ovi Store was that it was to have operator billing in place. It was seen as a blow to the new content store when Nokia (NYSE: NOK) said earlier this month that it would have to drop this option from its US store.

As for location-based services, this could be the real advantage of carrier store apps. Carriers alone have the ability to track their users in real time, meaning they alone control what services get built based on this valuable data and who builds it. One such innovative location-based service that Vodafone already offers in the Netherlands and Portugal is “High Definition Traffic.” The service uses anonymously collected and processed traffic data generated by the real-time movement patterns of mobile phones in cars from Vodafone’s network and combines it with traffic reports and anonymous data collected from TomTom to build an overall picture of how traffic is flowing.The system improves on the traditional method of traffic monitoring that typically relies on a network of cameras and traffic detectors, which tends to give a slower and less complete picture.

Developers have complained in the past that innovative apps that could fully exploit the mobile web and distinguish it from offerings found on the wired web have been held back over the carriers’ typically tight control over this sensitive information, but it looks like now Vodafone, for one, will give more access to it. Vodafone also said today that it will be providing customers with a framework to give them control and transparency over how their information is accessed and used. More information to come after Vodafone’s conference call scheduled for 3PM GMT today.