Finnish cell phone maker Nokia said today it will buy mobile messaging company Oz Communications to give consumers access to instant messaging services and emails through their mobile devices.

Users will be able to access AOL, Gmail, ICQ, Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo.

Privately owned Oz is headquartered in Montreal and has about 220 employees. Nokia said it was attracted by the Canadian company's technology that lets handset users tap into familiar computing programs from Microsoft, Google and Yahoo.

"With OZ, Nokia is renewing its mission of Connecting People by enabling consumers to easily connect and communicate using their favorite Internet communities," said Niklas Savander, Head of Nokia Services & Software. "OZ's team and technology will help Nokia to address the fast growing consumer messaging market."

Oz, which has been working with Nokia since 2003, also has relationships with mobile operators such as AT&T, France Telecom's Orange and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and handset makers Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola.

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