Hutchison Essar and Microsoft Corp. have announced a broad scale mobile services alliance in India. The two companies have agreed in principle to work together to provide mobile search and other key Windows Live services to Hutch’s subscriber base of over 21 million.

Under the agreement, Hutch customers in India will be able to search for and access mobile content and information in a one-stop integrated search powered by Windows Live Search for mobile, including news, sports, entertainment information and more, directly from the World Wide Web. In addition, Hutch users will soon be able to search for local business listing and services for major Indian cities.

“With India being the fastest growing mobile market in the world, providing a rich set of online services for mobile subscribers is more important than ever,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft, during his trip to New Delhi. “This alliance with Hutch allows Microsoft to partner with India’s leading mobile data services operator to bring the power of software-based services to Indian mobile customers, developers and advertisers in new and exciting ways.”

In Microsoft and Hutch’s current partnership, Microsoft powers Hutch’s mobile portal (“PlanetHutch”) and has built and manages Hutch’s Fun Cards platform (prepaid card for downloading value added services for its customers). The two companies will be extending this alliance to allow advertisers and content partners to reach mobile customers by the broad availability of paid search in the Indian mobile market.

Also included in the alliance are Windows Live services such as Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Spaces. Through these community-driven services Hutch customers soon will be able to access their online world of relationships, information and interests from their Hutch phones.

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