The invention relates to an electronic toll system for traffic routes, said system being designed on the basis of commercial GSM/UMTS mobile telephones or comparable appliances such as a PDA, car phones etc., with a GSM function, and to a method for the operation thereof. In each mobile radio network, data of the respective radio cell is transmitted to the radio telephone via an organisation channel. According to the invention, said information supplied by the base transceiver stations is used to record the radio cells crossed by the toll customer. The collected data is transmitted to a central toll station. The toll traffic route taken by the vehicle can be deduced with high precision, by comparison with databases relating to existing traffic routes, on the basis of the series of crossed radio cells transmitted by the terminal of the toll customer. According to the invention, no changes need to be carried out on the hardware of current mobile radio systems and terminals. The existing mobile radio terminals, radio telephones etc., are generally available for toll customers and can be used thereby.