"The search is over," says T-Mobile
12 February 2008
"The search is over," says T-Mobile
Hamid Akhavan, CEO of mobile operator T-Mobile International told a packed auditorium at the Mobile World Congress on Tuesday that his company's search for a mobile search partner is over as the carrier announced its partnership with internet giant Yahoo: "Our quest for the best partner has come to an end," he said, "we've tried almost every supplier and we think that Yahoo's oneSearch is the killer."
Akhavan described the partnership as "federated search," where results of queries are delivered direct, rather than as simple web links. The search tool not only searches the web for optimised content, but also the device," he said.
The partnership will go live in March of this year.
"As pioneer for the open internet model with web 'n' walk, we give our customers instant and direct access to all available internet services, such as information, content and communities," said Christopher Schlaffer, group products and innovation officer at T-Mobile, "With Yahoo, we combine our joint innovation power to bring the mobile internet even closer to our customers."
T-Mobile also announced its intention to deliver a "worry free" data roaming package across its European territories. Mobile internet within the EU will cost Eur2 per MB. While, heavy users will be able to get a day-pass for Eur15.
In addition, T-Mobile also announced "one click" access to the four dominant instant messaging clients, Windows Live Messenger, ICQ, AIM and Yahoo Messenger. According to Akhavan the announcement means the carrier has coverage with 90 per cent of the IM market.
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