3 to offer Yahoo! services
June 29, 2006
3 Group and Yahoo! announced a global agreement in which Yahoo!
will provide its portfolio of rich mobile services to 3 worldwide.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will work together
to offer key Internet services such as Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mobile
Web, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Go for Mobile on
3's networks around the world. The companies also plan to make additional
Yahoo! services available to 3 subscribers in the future.
This agreement breaks new ground in the convergence of the online
and mobile experience by bringing some of the world's most popular
online content and services to mobile broadband handsets. The first
services will launch in the UK this summer, with the intention to
launch thereafter in 3 Group's key European and Asia-Pacific markets
including Italy, Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Australia
and on Hutchison Telecommunications International in Hong Kong and
India. The companies will jointly market the services on the Yahoo!
and 3 networks.
For 3, this is another step in a series of landmark deals that
will open up a range of no-nonsense Internet-based services to its
global customers and will drive customer acquisition, usage and
traffic on 3's mobile networks. For Yahoo!, the relationship marks
its first strategic alliance with a global 3G mobile broadband network
operator.
The arrangement will use Yahoo!'s expertise in transcoding online
content for mobile devices to allow 3 customers to surf the entire
world wide web from their handsets for the first time. 3 will also
now offer its customers full access to Yahoo! Search for both on
and off portal search on mobile phones. The range of Yahoo! services,
from search to photos to ringtones and graphics, will be accessible
to subscribers either via the Internet browser on the handset or
through client applications such as Yahoo! Ready or Yahoo! Go for
Mobile on select devices. Country specific services will be made
available in line with the phased roll out of the product portfolio.
Key services that will be available to consumers on 3's global
network include:
Yahoo! Search (Web and Image)
- Quickly access full Internet Search including the ability to
find information about weather, stock quotes and dictionary definitions
- Search for and view billions of images
Popular Communications Services
- Including Yahoo! Mail
- Yahoo! Messenger
- Yahoo! Address Book
- Yahoo! Calendar
- Yahoo! Photos
- Leading Content
- News, sports scores, stock tickers, financial updates and more
through a direct connection to Yahoo!'s Mobile Web
- Mobile games
- marketplace - the latest ring tones and graphics
Christian Salbaing, Managing Director Europe Telecommunications
at 3 Group, said: "This relationship isn't just about us buying
more content to put on our portal, its about a deep engagement between
our two companies to bring some of the world's most popular Internet
services and content to 3's networks. Our customers and Yahoo! users
in our territories will be excited to access familiar Yahoo! services
on 3's 3G mobile handsets and other broadband devices. Convergence
between the Internet and mobile has been much talked about but this
deal will really make it happen. We are delighted to partner with
Yahoo! to leverage their knowledge of the Internet space, technical
expertise and content and service portfolio for our customers. It
is going to be fun."
Geraldine Wilson, Vice President, Connected Life, Yahoo! Europe,
said: "This announcement is another major milestone in Yahoo!'s
strategy to extend our user experience 'beyond the browser' and
across other platforms. 3 customers have already demonstrated their
appetite for data services and will now be able to feed that appetite
by accessing their favourite Yahoo! services via instantly familiar
icons on 3 handsets. This arrangement gives us a new opportunity
to take Yahoo! content and services to even more potential users
- especially those that might not have ready or frequent access
to the Internet via a PC."
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