EQO Communications and TOM Online (TOMO) have inked an agreement to jointly market the EQO Mobile for Skype's VoIP services in China.

EQO Mobile lets users make and receive Skype calls, exchange instant messages, and view presence information about their buddies over the Skype network from more than 55 different phone handset models from vendors including Nokia, Motorola, Palm, and Sony-Ericsson.

Most recently, EQO announced support for Palm TREO 650 and Motorola ROKR, SLVR, and RAZR handsets.

Since announcing an agreement with Skype to market the peer-to-peer calling service in China in October 2004, the TOM-Skype service has grown to more than 13 million users, making TOM Online the largest Skype partner in Asia and making China the largest "Skype nation" in the world. With more than 94 million registered users, Skype is one of the dominant player in Internet calling and Instant Messaging communications services worldwide.

"We are very excited to bring this solution to the Chinese market," said Colin Quon, founder and CTO of EQO. "With their consistent market leadership and innovative products and services, TOM represents the best possible partner to help us market our cutting-edge services throughout the country."

EQO is creating a localized version of its web site and handset software specifically for TOM customers, and both companies will market the service via TOM's web portal and the TOM-Skype service.

Using a combination of a phone-resident J2ME client and a presence-enabled Voice-over-IP (VoIP) signaling network, the EQO Mobile Internet Phone Service is capable of bridging online identity, VoIP calling, and Instant Messaging services to more than 200 million J2ME-capable mobile phone handsets already in use worldwide.