internet - Microsoft, China Telecom enter search market

US IT-giant Microsoft has signed a deal with China Telecom, giving them in theory access to the 25 million broadband customers of China's largest fixed line telecom company, writes the People's Daily. I have been trying to figure out how this agreement could pan out, but are still lost here. China Telecom claims to have 400 city portals, but I wonder how they would get traffic from their users. I have been a long term user of the broadband service by China Telecom, but have looked hardly at their websites. Incidentally, I would use their webbased email service, but I'm using now different email addresses.
This might be just a heap of hot air.

Update: Now look at the China Web2.0 review. They revealed that China Telecom has 21 million reasons to work with Microsoft - although they earlier said they had a deal with Baidu. Poor Microsoft has paid 21 million US dollar for this cooperation in exchange for revenue share. Now, since that revenue share is likely to be very limited, they can at least save costs for hiring accountants.