The European Commission (EC) on Tuesday granted its approval for a joint venture between Swedish state-owned telecommunications company Telia and database giant Oracle.
The venture, named Drutt Corp., is the company managing the creation and rollout of the Halebop.com online gateway, or portal site, for mobile phone users and is based in Stockholm. The Brussels based-ruling body is giving the venture the go-ahead, as it sees "no competition concerns in the Internet-related markets in Europe," the EC said in a statement.In February, Oracle and Telia announced that they were forming the mobile Internet services joint venture to offer wireless products and services worldwide based mainly around Oracle's Portal-to-Go product. Last May, they unveiled its operator-independent portal -- named Halebop -- aimed at Swedish users of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technology for accessing the Internet via mobile devices.Halebop will be made available to users of mobile phones utilizing WAP and second-generation mobile phone technology. Currently, Halebop is aimed at the Swedish market, but the company will roll out services for Finland and Norway by the end of the year, according to Roland Svensson, CEO. Halebop services will be expanded to other European countries next year, though the exact rollout schedule has yet to be decided, he said.The EC granted its approval because the venture is in the rapidly expanding market in Sweden. Furthermore, Drutt will not have any exclusive arrangements with Telia that the EC felt could lead to a possible monopoly in that market, the EC said.
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