They'd only have themselves to play with..
Thatsabeauty..
Heres a 2nd grade level piece from FinancialT:
Microsoft, BT in UK internet venture
By Alan Cane in London and Louise Kehoe in California
British Telecommunications and Microsoft, the world's largest software group, are expected to announce today that they are collaborating in a venture to provide their customers with wireless access to the internet. Neither company was prepared to comment yesterday, but it is understood they were in talks last night that were expected to lead to a detailed agreement.
Paul Maritz, Microsoft group president for platforms and applications, is expected to announce the venture to a wireless industry conference in New Orleans today.
The scheme would be Microsoft's first move into telecommunications in the UK and a challenge to Symbian, a joint initiative between Motorola of the US, Ericsson of Sweden, Nokia of Finland and Psion of the UK.
At stake is the leadership of the nascent market for the delivery of information to subscribers on the move. Analysts expect the market to mushroom as receiving devices - essentially elaborate cellular phones - decline in price and increase in capabilities.
Symbian was formed with the purpose of capturing this market through the development of an operating system based on Psion's hand-held "organiser" products, thus denying Microsoft the opportunity to dominate the market with its Windows CE (compact edition) operating system for hand-held computers.
The establishment of Symbian was a setback for Microsoft, which had established a joint venture with a US technology company, Qualcomm, to offer a wireless internet service to cellular phone companies that would in turn offer the service to customers.
A deal between Microsoft and BT would be a test of Microsoft's leadership ambitions in wireless data communications. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft president, said two months ago that wireless data represented a "logical extension" of Microsoft's strategy of enabling users always to be connected to their corporate and personal information. BT, which already has a number of business relationships with Microsoft, is investing to take advantage of the "datawave" - the huge growth in demand for data transmission.
It is the major shareholder in Cellnet, the UK's second largest mobile operator, which could provide the nationwide infrastructure for the Microsoft venture. Analysts speculated that the two companies might be contemplating a joint application for a UK licence for third generation mobile services, which involve cellular access to the internet.
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