Smart partners with Yahoo! to offer e-mail via mobiles

Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) and Yahoo! Southeast Asia have announced the availability of Yahoo! Mail for SMS to mobile phone subscribers.

Smart mobile phone subscribers can now enjoy access to Yahoo! e-mail directly from their mobile phones. The new service greatly expands the offering for Smart mobile phone customers who will now be able to send and receive e-mail on the go.

Smart mobile customers will also be able to tap into the global reach of Yahoo!’, featuring a network of 25 Internet properties reaching over 218 million users worldwide.

"The Yahoo! Mail for SMS service is another example of Smart’s ongoing efforts to bring more value to our customers," said Anastacio Martinez, Smart’s personal communications and mobile services division head.

"It marks the convergence of two very immensely popular communication channels into one seamless facility, bridging the gap between Internet and wireless communications," he added.

The partnership greatly expands the reach of e-mail in the Philippines, where mobile phone penetration is far higher than that of Internet connections.

According to research from the Gartner Group, there are about 2.4 million Internet connections in the Philippines compared to 11 million mobile phone connections.

Smart, together with affiliate company Talk ’N Text, commands more than 60 percent share of the mobile phone market. The Philippines is also one of the world’s most active SMS markets, accounting for around half of the world’s total SMS traffic.

In other markets, mobile service providers have increased SMS traffic after introducing Yahoo! enhanced services.

"By combining Smart’s millions of SMS-proficient users with the global community of Yahoo! of over 100 million loyal e-mail fans, there is a real potential to transform the way Filipinos communicate," said Niren Hiro, general manager of Yahoo! Asia.

"We are also thrilled to have the opportunity to boost Smart’s SMS traffic while Smart takes Yahoo! mail from PCs to mobile phones," he added.

Yahoo! Mobile’s SMS and GPRS products already reach 29 million mobile phones in five countries in Southeast Asia through partnerships with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., MobileOne Pte Ltd and StarHub Pte Ltd in Singapore, Digi.com Bhd and TM Cellular Sdn Bhd (TMTouch) in Malaysia and Total Access Communication Plc (DTAC) in Thailand.

Smart customers can access their free Yahoo! e-mail accounts via their mobile phones by sending Short Message Service (SMS) commands to the Smart Yahoo! Shortcode. Users will be able to check, read, reply, forward, compose, delete and retrieve e-mails from their mobile phones.

For more information, visit http://asia.mobile.yahoo.com.