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Hotmail messages now on cell phones

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CIOL Bureau
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Bernhard Warner

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LONDON: Microsoft Corp. will give its 20 million email users in Europe access

to messages via their mobile phones, the company said on Thursday in unveiling a

new alliance with European mobile operators.

The initiative involving a joint venture between Danish mobile operator TDC

Mobile International, and Anglo-Dutch CMG Wireless Data Solutions, is the latest

step in Microsoft's strategy to bring its software products and Web offerings to

mobile devices, including phones, pagers and handheld devices. This is the first

time Microsoft has made Hotmail accessible via mobile phones, the company said.

Hotmail is one of the most commonly accessed features on MSN, Europe's

leading Web portal. In the future, Microsoft intends to give mobile users

greater access to the MSN portal whether it would be to read news headlines or

scan parts of the Web, the company said.

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Users will be able to access their Hotmail account and send email messages

via short messaging service, commonly known as SMS, Microsoft said.

Mobile computing - particularly the ability to access email via users' mobile

phones - is nothing new. Internet-ready phones, introduced by the Wireless

Application Protocol (WAP) and the faster Gereral Packet Radio Service (GPRS)

technologies, can perform this function. But takeup by consumers has been

gradual.

On the other hand, SMS usage has exploded in Europe with millions and

millions of users regularly tapping messages from their phone pad, at an average

cost of 10 to 20 pence per message. The firms are hoping that by basing the

initiative on the already familiar SMS platform, and making it available to

millions of Hotmail users, it will bring a long-sought kick-start to the mobile

computing industry.

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Declan Lonergan, director of the European wireless/mobile group at The Yankee

Group in London, said the Microsoft announcement is a good, if short-term, step

towards introducing mobile computing to the masses. "Maybe, with Microsoft

coming to the table, it will make more user friendly," Lonergan said.

"I think delivering e-mail via the SMS channel is a clever way forward, but

I think GPRS will take most of the traffic in the future."

In the short term it could be a very important chunk of business for mobile

operators looking to cash in on users dialing in to check e-mail. "With

this alliance we are extending our capability to offer mobile carriers an

immediate opportunity to generate revenue based on two-way SMS by providing

their consumers with access to MSN Hotmail," Judy Gibbons, vice president

of MSN Europe, Middle East and Africa, said in a statement.

The US software giant said on Thursday that as part of the initiative more

than 40 mobile operators across Europe will have access to the Web-based Hotmail

service. The first trials will be with Sunrise, a Swiss mobile service owned by

TDC, and TDC Mobile in Denmark, Microsoft said. Microsoft could not immediately

say when the start date for the trials would be.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001

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