Pearson plc, the world's biggest educational publisher, and Finnish handset maker Nokia Corp announced on Monday that they have set up a joint venture to offer English-language learning materials to mobile phone users in China.

The newly-launched JV, named Beijing Mobiledu Technologies, builds on the premier mobile phone-delivered education service that Nokia launched in China in 2007, providing content from a variety of publishers directly to mobile phones.

Customers can access the content through an application preloaded on new Nokia handsets, or by visiting the service’s mobile website and most other WAP portals in China.

Mobiledu has already attracted 20 million subscribers in China, with 1.5 million people actively using the service each month. Nokia will continue to deliver the service to customers in the country through a range of channels, including Nokia's Ovi Store.

The cooperation is a great opportunity to combine Pearson's English language learning and wider educational services with the mobile technology capabilities of Nokia to meet this demand in China, which is the world's largest mobile phone market and the country with the largest number of people learning English.