Yahoo oneSearch To Power Wireless Carrier Portals In Latin America

Even as attention has been focused on Google’s 700 MHz spectrum bid and its Android mobile platform, Yahoo has been aggressively doing business development with mobile operators and handset makers around the world, in Asia, Europe, and now Latin America. This morning Yahoo announced that it had inked another major wireless distribution deal with America Movil. Under the deal, which spans 16 countries and roughly 143 million mobile subscribers in Latin America and the Caribbean, Yahoo’s oneSearch “will be the default mobile search service on America Movil’s wireless carriers’ portals.”

These global carrier (and OEM) relationships either mean Yahoo Go will be preloaded or oneSearch will be on the so-called “carrier deck.” That arguably gives Yahoo more direct access to mobile consumers and reach than its main rivals. However, one of the outstanding questions is whether the carrier deck will continue to hold sway over consumers as they become more sophisticated about the mobile Internet.

At least in the U.S., preliminary data from an iCrossing survey conducted earlier this year indicated that consumers were pursuing the major search sites on mobile devices “off deck.” However, Yahoo is one of those sites too.

Here’s a previous post in which Yahoo Mobile Chief Marco Boerries comments on the Android platform and contrasts his company’s mobile strategy with that of Google.