MSN hooks up Hotmail to mobiles

MSN has agreed an alliance to make its Hotmail email service available through mobile phones.

The service will be based on the MIGway platform, a joint venture unveiled earlier this week between TDC, formerly Tele Danmark, a Danish-based European communication solutions provider and CMG Wireless data solutions.

The agreement with MIGway covers 40 European operators with testing beginning next month in Denmark and Switzerland. MSN hopes to have the two-way SMS service up and running in its 15 European countries by the end of the year.

Judy Gibbons, vice president of MSN EMEA, said all users of the service will be passport enabled and that the service would be "device independent."

She said: "Mobility is central to many Europeans' lives today, and with this alliance we are extending our capability to offer mobile carriers an immediate opportunity to generate revenue based on two-way SMS by providing their consumers with access to MSN Hotmail.