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Nokia has spent the past year talking up its plans to become an internet services provider and has been amassing a string of acquisitions and partnerships to boost its Ovi portal. The latest is privately held Canadian firm Oz Communications, which specializes in the crucial field, in terms of stealing a march on the established internet players, of mobile email/instant messaging.

Nokia said it would buy Oz for an undisclosed amount and incorporate it into its services and software unit. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Oz is a five-year old company that has been working with Nokia since 2003, and has raised more than $71m. the main companies offerings its services operators, on a white label basis - chief among them Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, Alltel and Rogers Wireless.

These deals might bring some peripherally valuable contacts in the elusive north American market for Nokia, which sees web services as a key weapon to crack that nut, but the main reason to buy Oz will be for the technology. This should fit nicely with other recent acquisitions like Twango, Plazes and Enpocket in beefing up a full web portfolio, and also form a foundation stone for Nokia's much needed enhancement of its messaging offering. The deal also suggests that the Finnish company aims to create its own mail/messaging services rather than rely on partnering with a big name.

With 220 employees, Oz claims to have 5.5m monthly paid users using its products.

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