(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Chunghwa Telecom signed an agreement with Google on mobile Internet search services, said the chairman of Taiwan's largest phone company by revenue.
Under the agreement, search-engine giant Google will provide a Web search service on Chunghwa Telecom's mobile phones from January.
'This is the first step of cooperation and we will offer more services with Google in the future,' said Ho Chen Tan, chairman of Taiwan's dominant fixed-line and broadband Internet operator.
Chunghwa Telecom wants to encourage more Internet usage by the company's subscribers and spur migration to 3G services by offering a Google search on its mobile phones, Ho Chen said.
Mobile phone operators earn more revenue from 3G phone subscribers than from users of older generation phones due to their higher data usage.
Chunghwa Telecom now has 840,000 3G users, and is aiming for 1.5 million in 2007, said Chang Shiao-Tung, vice president of Chunghwa Telecom's mobile unit. The company now has over 8 million mobile phone subscribers in total.
Ho Chen declined to comment on how much the company expects its revenue to grow as a result of the new service.
Google Vice President Lee Kai-Fu said mobile search is in its early stages and doesn't constitute a large part of the company's revenue.
'We're optimistic on the outlook because in the future the number of mobile phone users will exceed those of computer users,' Lee said.
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