Nokia sweet-talks operators over revenue share concerns

As the services business becomes evermore important to the mobile industry, Nokia is reported to be in close discussion with Europe's major operators over its revenue sharing ideas. This move is an attempt by Nokia to allay fears about its forthcoming services strategy and its potential to directly conflict with those from the operator community.

While Vodafone and Telefonica are said to be more comfortable with Nokia's proposals, T-Mobile is believed to be the most reluctant to market the latest Nokia handsets, which come with free music, games and navigation, as well as the Nokia Ovi portal. Orange was also said to be initially resistant to offer the first Nokia handsets--the N95 and N81--which launched with Nokia's Music Store, but has since started to soften its stance after Nokia made the case that its plans may conflict with operators' own music and online services but they would increase data usage.

Nokia's executive VP for marketing, Anssi Vanjoki, said, "It is not like five years ago when all the operators are one monolithic block. They are playing very different strategies at the moment."

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