Orange has just inked a three-year deal with Nokia that would offer the Finnish phone maker’s mobile games and maps services to its widening base of customers across nine European countries, comprising the UK. The new deal is perceived to be a step back for Nokia. Nokia had looked to threaten the position of mobile phone operators via the launch of its own exclusive suite of mobile services under the Ovi banner a year ago.

Ovi was thought to be a direct challenge to the might of the many mobile operators like Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone all vying to persuade their customers to do more than just talk and text.

However, the new deal, under which Orange and Nokia will both be sharing revenue, will witness the latter’s mobile maps getting co-branded with the operator’s name. The two firms have set a target of approaching 10 million Orange customers using Nokia’s mobile maps by 2010. The deal is not exclusive in nature. Nokia already has a few other partners.