Britains Vodafone Group Plc, the worlds biggest mobile phone operator by sales, said on Tuesday it has signed a deal with Google to offer search capabilities on its Vodafone live. 3G service.

Users will be able to use Googles search engine to find content within the Vodafone live multimedia portal and on the wider Web.

Vodafone hopes that the deal with Google, which for many users is synonymous with the Internet, will help it increase Internet usage by customers and help it raise data revenues.

Mobile operators have sunk in billion of euros to set up third generation networks and now need to increase data usage on their networks to recoup costs, with core voice revenues threatened by intense competition and falling prices.

The deal with Google will also see the mobile phone giant get a share of advertising revenues from the Internet search leader.

Joint ventures such as this will continue to develop in the coming years as companies share synergies to enhance their revenue streams…Read more courtesy of reuters