Indian broadband and telephone service provider Airtel Telemedia Services has announced the launch of a new web portal in partnership with Google.
With the search engine provider co-branding the initiative, the portal will provide Airtel's customers with free access to the Google Apps suite.
Described by Airtel as a "new all-in-one internet portal" for its customers, the initiative is said to mark the first time a telecommunications firm in India has made Google products officially available on its portal.
Named airtellive.com, the site will provide consumers with access to Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar and the start page feature which enables users to create a customised homepage.
As well as partnering with Google, Airtel has collaborated with other firms over the new site, including shaadi.com, 24x7guru and naukri.com.
In a statement, Atul Bindal, president of Airtel, commented: "airtellive.com is a milestone in Airtel's broadband strategy and it builds upon the current broadband ecosystem infrastructure to establish an internet destination for web applications.
"It underlines our commitment towards simplifying and adding value to our broadband customers and driving the adoption of broadband in the country."
According to social networking news blog Mashable, Google's participation in the initiative is indicative of its goal to "expand across international reaches", particularly in Central and Southeast Asia "where broadband access is very much still in an early stage of distribution".
