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London (pte025/01.07.2005/12:09) - Vodafone http://www.vodafone.com and T-Mobile http://www.t-mobile.com , two of the most competitive mobile phone companies in Europe, are getting connected to the internet in order to offer customers online access through their phones.
Vodafone, which boasts the highest mobile phone company revenue worldwide, has signed up with Microsoft and now offers instant messaging (IM) through the MSN Messenger service.
Rival company T-Mobile has turned to Google and will offer internet services on phone interfaces.
Experts note that the World Wide Web is becoming an integral part of mobile phone communication.
Up until now, mobile internet services have offered limited access, have been too expensive and too complicated, said a T-Mobile spokesperson. With the new deal, European customers will be directed to Google. However only those with the latest phone models will be able to access the service. Others with older handsets will use the T-zone walled garden, which has been used to promote ringtones and graphics.
T-Mobile's new service will be launched in July in Germany and Austria; and later this year in Britain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic .
Vodafone's subscribers, who number 155 million worldwide, will have to pay for the IM service, but those who have it will be able to hook up from a mobile to a PC and vice versa.
"People are willing to pay for messaging in the context of SMS so that is no reason why they would not pay for it in IM," said John Delaney, principal analyst at telecoms research firm Ovum.
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