China Telecom was recently on the look out for a partner to provide search solutions to their subscribers. They have now announced that they have chosen Shanghai-based company, mInfo, as their partner to provide mobile search services to users all over China.
The newly formed alliance will be capable of providing search services to China telecom’s wireless subscribers across the entire country, of which about 33 million are CDMA subscribers while about 43 million are PHS subscribers.
Users will be able to receive solutions to almost any query sent by SMS, SIM card, OTA application, or menu operations which are preloaded on certain new handsets.
The search providers will give almost instantaneous answers to questions related to a variety of topics ranging from the latest news and weather to education or knowledge and business directories.
The service will initially be available only in the important markets of the country, but by the second half of 2009 the service will be accessible all over the country.
According to reports from Analysys International, mInfo is the clear market leader for search solutions in China. They are also on the final selection list along with Baidu as search partners for Unicom, which is the other major mobile service provider in China.
mInfo had also been chosen by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic games as the official search providers for the games.
In the meantime mInfo’s competitor Baidu has announced that they will be providing search services to the 3G subscribers of China Telecom, as they have formed a partnership with China Telecom’s directory information service which is known as Best Tone.
