Hutchison Essar and Microsoft Corp. have come together to announce a broad scale mobile services alliance in India.Building on the successful existing partnership between the two companies, the parties have agreed in principle to work together to provide mobile search andother key Windows Live services to Hutch’s subscriber base of over21 million.
Upon completion of the alliance, Hutch customersin India will be able to search for and access mobile content and informationin a one-stop integrated search powered by Windows Live Search for mobile -including news, sports, entertainment information and more -- directly from theWorld Wide Web. In addition, Hutch users will soon be able to search for localbusiness listing and services for major Indian cities.
“With Indiabeing the fastest growing mobile market in the world, providing a rich set ofonline services for mobile subscribers is more important than ever,” saidSteve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft, during his trip to New Delhi. “This alliance with Hutchallows Microsoft to partner with India’s leading mobile dataservices operator to bring the power of software-based services to Indianmobile customers, developers and advertisers in new and exciting ways.”
In Microsoft and Hutch’s current partnership, Microsoft powers Hutch’s mobile portal(“PlanetHutch”) and has built and manages Hutch’s Fun Cardsplatform (prepaid card for downloading value added services for its customers).Microsoft and Hutch will be extending this alliance to allow advertisers andcontent partners to reach mobile customers by the broad availability of paidsearch in the Indian mobile market. Also included in the alliance are WindowsLive services such as Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail and Windows LiveSpaces. Through these community driven services Hutch customers soon will beable to access their online world of relationships, information and interestsfrom their Hutch phones.
“The Mobile Internet is the way forward forthe Internet – and in this area, we have had a wonderful relationshipwith Microsoft over the years. We were the first to launch MSN Messenger andHotmail on mobile phones in India.We have always believed in giving our customers services that help simplifytheir life. We have partnered with various global service providers likeMicrosoft on an open access principle to help us achieve this objective.It is terrific to be extending this relationship to help provide theentire Windows Live suite to our customers. And of course, it comes with agreat search engine,” said Asim Ghosh, Managing Director, HutchisonEssar.
Commenting on the alliance, Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India, said,“Hutch’s leadership in the expanding mobile data services sectorcoupled with the breadth and innovation offered by Microsoft’s WindowsLive services, means this alliance is well positioned to accelerate the Indianmobile internet market. Together, we are committed to empower and providecustomers with the best of mobile services in India”.
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