A Russian mobile-phone operator is the latest service provider to team with
Microsoft to offer Windows-based PCs on a subscription basis through the company's
Unlimited Potential program.

A partnership with Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS), unveiled Wednesday at the
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is similar to ones that Microsoft already
has in place in Mexico and Brazil as part of a plan to bring affordable technology
to developing countries.

Through the partnership, Microsoft in June will deliver PCs running Windows
Vista that offer built-in mobile broadband access to customers on a subscription
basis, rather than requiring customers to pay for them outright. The two companies
also are working on a road map to introduce new mobile communications services
that can be accessed on those PCs, but did not specifically say what those new
services will be.

Both the PCs and services will be offered to about 85 million MTS customers
in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Belarus as part of
the MTS Connect program, the companies said.

The MTS deal is similar to one that Microsoft has with service providers TelMex
in Mexico and Telefonica in Brazil to offer low-cost PCs through the Subscription
Computing Program, which preceded Unlimited Potential. Eventually, that program
became part of Unlimited Potential, through which Microsoft works with community
leaders in countries where technology has not yet had a significant impact on
businesses and communities.

Unlimited Potential is directly related to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' idea
of "creative capitalism," which suggests that companies worldwide
work with governments and nonprofits to find ways to be charitable and solve
the problems of the poorest people without sacrificing their own business needs.
Gates recently outlined this idea in a speech at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland.

Analysts and observers have suggested another reason why Microsoft is interested
in working with emerging markets on technology efforts: the fight against Linux,
which is proving a less expensive and easier-to-access option for people in
countries with scant access to technology. Indeed, Unlimited Potential and creative
capitalism combine both altruism and business interests, and Microsoft executives
have acknowledged the need to foster education and business development to get
software like Windows and Office in the hands of people who wouldn't typically
be able to afford it.

IDG News Service

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