IMImobile bags Yahoo! deal for mobile services

Cellular value-added services (VAS) technology provider, IMImobile has bagged a contract for providing short code-based technology to global Internet company Yahoo! in 16 countries.

Under the contract, the company will be tying up with 36 operators in West Asia and Africa and would enable users to download mobile content from Yahoo! websites.

The deal is slated to be one of the largest contract bagged by any Indian VAS technology provider in terms of size. However, the size of the deal could not be ascertained.

Confirming this, Suresh Jayaraju, IMImobile general manager (marketing and operations), said the company will be technology partners for Yahoo!'s short code-based SMS services.

The company expects the service to be used by 35 million subscribers across the two regions "� West Asia and Africa.

The services will be available in the Gulf countries such as UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar among other places, while it would be rolled out on a priority basis in the African continent in South Africa, Nigeria, Jordan and Egypt.

IMImobile is in talks with operators such as Etisalet, Saudi Telecom, Starcom and Call Tell among other 36 operators for rolling out of the services.

The company is also looking at setting up 10 regional voice portals in India, that would work on a short-code basis. The portals would be in Bengali, Tamil and Bhojpuri to begin with, and is expected to begin the roll out by the end of this financial year.

Earlier, IMImobile had tied up with MForma, a global publisher and distributor of mobile entertainment products, to offer licensed mobile games to subscribers in India.

The company has a tie-up with Yahoo! in India, under which subscribers can send an SMS at 8243 and download ringtones, wallpapers, movie clips and games among others.