A partnership with a privately held company will cost $2.99 per month and give users Yahoo Mail for Mobile.
An alternative to costly offerings from Research In Motion allows users of certain Sprint phones to subscribe to Yahoo Mail for Mobile. The service rolls out nationwide and starts today, and will be open only to Sprint mobile customers.
Subscribers will have Yahoo e-mail pushed to their phones after downloading some software, and will be billed by Sprint. Activities performed on the phone will be fully synchronized with the user’s Yahoo account. Users can write or delete messages, and access their Yahoo address book.
The big feature will be the push functionality, a service that had been limited to mostly corporate users equipped with BlackBerry and similar devices. Those users pay more per month than the $2.99 fee Sprint will charge its subscribers. The push feature can be scheduled by the user to happen at certain intervals of minutes, hourly, or daily.
Registration and download happen over the air. No additional PC software or connection will be needed. And messages sent over the air will be encrypted with AES-grade 128-bit coding.
Sunnyvale-based Yahoo currently offers a number of services for mobile phone users. Yahoo Messenger lets users IM other users from a mobile handset. And Yahoo has made its search for local info or images available on phones.
Today’s initiative sees the portal company and the wireless provider team with a company called Seven. “SEVEN is excited to work with Yahoo! as they bring mobile e-mail into the lives of consumers,” said Kent Thexton, SEVEN President and CEO.
“E-mail has become an indispensable communication tool. Now, using affordable and everyday mobile phones, consumers can get the familiar Yahoo! Mail experience on the go.”
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
