Google to offer web-based services to Airtel

CHENNAI: Bharti Airtel Broadband and Telephone Services (B&TS), a private broadband and telephone service provider, and popular search engine Google Inc., announced plans to work together in bringing important web-based services to Airtel's community of broadband internet customers. 

As part of the agreement, Airtel would offer its broadband  customers a portal which includes Google Search for web-based queries, Google Gmail with 2 GB storage, spam filter, and options of web access and POP access, a company release said here on Monday.

Besides features like Google Talk instant messaging/ chatting service for sending instant messages to friends - anytime, anywhere in the world, Google Docs and Spreadsheets users can share and collaborate in real-time suite of advanced utility and communication applications, on-demand gaming service and music download service.

Besides these offerings, customers would get the option to personalise their Internet start-page with content of individual preference - news, blog postings, weather and other interactive content and services through thousands of "gadgets" as well as content/ information from any site that gives XML feeds.

Airtel Broadband customers would be able to access all these services with a single sign-on completely free of cost. 

The portal would make it easy for customers to access their email, search the web, share ideas, connect with friends and publish content.

More offerings like e-commerce applications would be added to the portal over a period time.