Optus and Yahoo!7 announced today an alliance to provide Yahoo!7 Messenger to Optus mobile customers.

Under the agreement, Yahoo!7 will provide Yahoo Messenger on Optus' Mobile Instant Messenger (IM) platform, ensuring customers enjoy the richest possible content experience.

"Today's agreement with Yahoo!7 is yet another example of Optus' promise to deliver a truly convergent communications experience to customers. Customers will be the end winners with a product offering brought together by one of Australia's most powerful online brands and Australia’s second largest telecommunications provider," Warren Hardy, Managing Director, Optus Consumer said.

"Staying in touch with all your contacts whilst you are on the go is becoming extremely important. Using their Optus mobile, customers can now view their buddies status or send and receive Instant Messages just as they do on the PC."

The Instant Messaging category has enjoyed steady year-on-year growth of 9.2%¹ and according to a recent 'Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Report' by AIMIA this trend is set to continue with 38% of respondents citing Instant Messenger as a desired application for future use on their mobile phones.²

"Yahoo!7 is committed to ensuring that all the services our users know and love are available on mobile devices as well as the PC. The agreement with Optus is further evidence of the growing momentum of our 'Beyond the PC' strategy," said Gregan McMahon, Head of Mobile, Yahoo!7.

"Optus customers now have the ability to exchange messages via Yahoo!7 Messenger in real time on their mobile phone as well as over the internet."

Yahoo!7 Messenger is available to Optus post-paid customers under two plans; a pay-as-you-go fee of 95¢ per day or customers can take up a subscription at $5.95 per month. Optus pre-paid customers are charged the pay-as-you-go fee of 95¢ per day³.

Optus will be offering a two month free trial for the new service until 31 August 2006⁴.

About Yahoo!7
Yahoo!7 is one of the most comprehensive and engaging online destinations for Australian consumers and advertisers. Formed as a 50-50 partnership between the Seven Network Limited (ASX: SEV) and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), Yahoo!7 brings together the successful Australian internet business, Yahoo! Australia & NZ, and the online assets and television and magazine content of the Seven Network, one of Australia’s leading media companies. The company also combines the strengths of Yahoo! search and communications capabilities and its global internet network, with Seven's rich media and entertainment content and marketing capabilities.

About Optus
Optus is an Australian leader in integrated communications - serving more than six million customers each day. The company provides a broad range of communications services including mobile, national and long distance services, local telephony, international telephony, business network services, internet and satellite services and subscription television.

¹ Nielsen Netrating April Data Year-On-Year 2005-2006
² AIMIA Mobile Content Industry Group, Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index, May 2006 - 2nd Edition. Special Topic: The impact of 3G
³ Optus Fair Go™ Policy applies on the pay as you go rate, up to 1MB per day, on the monthly option up to 10MB per month.
⁴ The promotion runs for 2 months from the date of connection to the 3G network. Customers will need to sign up and receive user credentials from MSN Messenger and/or Yahoo! Messenger on the Internet. Compatible handsets and new postpaid connections only.

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