After months of reported bad blood between the two companies, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and T-Mobile have signed a deal that will see the Finnish handset maker providing the German network’s European customers with phones especially tailored to provide easy access to T-Mobile’s “web’n’walk” internet service and Nokia’s mobile portal Ovi. The two companies also said they will work on making social network sites more mobile, and will cooperate on creating mobile widgets to create a “richer” user experience for T-Mobile’s web’n’walk service.

Of course, what the announcement doesn’t say is whether or not T-Mobile was dragged kicking and screaming to the deal. As recently as March, T-Mobile was reportedly not amused by Nokia’s move into mobile content, with T-Mobile International head Hamid Akhavan telling German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that its parent Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) will “not be happy” if Nokia’s mobile content and apps brand Ovi enters the market with its own product offerings. He added, “Nokia has to sell its mobile phones and we assume that the company will want to continue its successful partnership with T-Mobile.” There was also talk of T-Mobile pointedly rejecting any Ovi-loaded handset, though T-Mobile bosses later dismissed this as nonsense. Still, in Nokia’s announcement, they take pains to stress their “good cooperation” with T-Mobile, and to underscore that it’s not about what operators or handset makers want, but what consumers want, be it Ovi or web’n’walk, or both. Nokia’s EVP of Market Anssi Vanjoki: “We believe in providing consumers with choice regarding which Internet services they want to access from their mobile device.” (release)

• Updated: T-Mobile May Dump Nokia’s Ovi Compatible Phones: Report; T-Mob Denies Shutting Out Ovi
• Operators Vs Handset Players: T-Mob Boss Warns Nokia On Content Services