[3GScottishUser]

Yahoo! inks global deal with 3

Yahoo! has stuck a multi-territory deal to provide 3 customers with a range of mobile services, including full web access for the first time.
The initial products include Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mobile Web, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Go for Mobile.

The first services will launch in the UK this summer, followed by 3 Group’s European and Asia-Pacific markets including Italy, Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Australia. Hutchison Telecommunications International in Hong Kong and India are also included as part of the deal.

3 UK previously allowed its customers to access only specially selected websites outside of its walled garden due to concerns over user experience, but the aggreement with Yahoo! signals a new policy of full web access facilitated by the Internet giant's website adaptation technologies.

The companies will jointly market the services on the Yahoo! and 3 networks.

Christian Salbaing, managing director Europe 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. Convergence between the Internet and mobile has been much talked about but this deal will really make it happen.”

Geraldine Wilson,VP of Connected Life at Yahoo! Europe, said: “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.”

In March, 3 UK inked a deal with Yahoo! rival MSN to cross promote user-generated content services.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/newsitem.php?id=1133

[Ben]

And down comes the wall? Nice find, 3GSU!

[3GScottishUser]

The cracks have been appearing for some time now. Pity 3 don't just bite the bullet and declare that the whole 'walled garden' concept was a silly idea from the outset.

Still better late than never. I suspect others will be doing deals with Google, MSN and Yahoo in due course.

[Hands0n]

3 have never officially been convinced that the Customer actually wants Internet access on their handset, or otherwise. They've long held the opinion that websites will display poorly on a mobile phone handset, and correct they'd be on that, generally. But, and this is probably the rub for everyone, we have been denied the choice for ourselves. Noone likes being dictated to, especially by the recipient of our hard-earned cash for services supplied.

This is, indeed, good news for any 3 customer who has a desire to access the Internet fromt their mobile, providing the tariffs are right. T-Mobile done a great deal with Web N Walk and use of Opera Mini to resolve any website display issues. Yahoo appear to have similar technology and 3 buying into it makes for a good deal without having to re-invent any wheels.

Good luck to 3 with this - I hope they price it right. If they don't there is plenty of competition about!!

[3GScottishUser]

There appears to have been a key shift in strategy at 3. Not so long ago you got your free handset and lots of minutes and texts and had to put up with something less than the market standard in terms of reliability and customer service. Churn has been horrific for them as a result and the big 4 now have their own 3G and their well oiled marketing and are fighting back hard now.

3 have had problems getting take-up of video services so have included them in many packages and protected themselves with the 'walled garden' etc from outside competition. That strategy worked well enough for a while but it has now become a liability as T-Mobile, Orange and 02 introduced better value basic services and Vodafone introduced big price incentives like Stop The Clock.

So what now for 3? They know their golden goose (high cost termination fees) are about to be slashed by Ofcom. They also know that anything they had that was exclusive is'nt any longer and are often left standing in terms of new innovations now (ie i-mode, Web'N'Walk, Mobile TV) They are having to embrace just about anything that will give them an edge. Look at the recent deals with MSN, Yahoo and Skype. They will tack anythng they think has a customer value on now to gain some credibility... and why not? The more they offer the more customer benefits there will be and that is good for competition. I do however suspect they are now operating a blunderbus approach and have no real clue as to what will appeal, they just hope something will soon I suspect.

Interesting to note that 3 seem to be keeping all the new attractive handsets to themselves. No sign of them funding N80's, SE 800i or e61's through dealers. I get a gut feeling that having those on their website is a very cost effective way of keeping their head above the water in terms of the latest equipment but not wanting to do as they have previously just giving stuff away through dealers. 3 look to be taking more direct control of their customer base now but on the other hand are allowing those customers more choice in terms of both hardware and services. Big question is.... have they got the clout to shift the kind of numbers CPW etc move?? I doubt it!

[whatleydude]

Its good news that they'll start allowing Yahoo Go! on their handsets.

Its a great app that any yahoo user shouldnt be without!

(and NO I'm not on commission! ;) )

[3g-g]

I just wonder if this is more the doing of Yahoo and MSN rather than something Three have come up with, the "rivals" that are the two big Americans are going to be allowing cross IM chat chat between both types of messenger application. So, it would look pretty rubbish on Three's front, if after the singing and dancing about allowing MSN onto their handsets you couldn't add a Yahoo contact eh?!

Perhaps it's just me being cynical, but I think Three probably had no option to allow Yahoo in the door after MSN and Yahoo had made their own plans for cross application chat.

[Alio]

About time 3:rolleyes:

[jeffster]

Definitely about time, but probably too late for 3 to retain me as a customer when my contract expires in October, unless they come with an attractively priced tariff...

[Ben]

I'm interested to see how this gets implemented; what's blocked and what's not. I'd imagine this is a broad expansion of port 80 web page viewing, though a Yahoo 'mobile' proxy, while existing clampdowns on widespread connectivity remain firmly in place. Time will tell!