The world's largest cellphone maker Nokia said on Friday it had bought U.S. geographic technology firm MetaCarta, as a part of its strategy to offer local navigation services to its customers.

It did not disclose the deal price, but said the Massachusetts-based company employed more than 30 people.

MetaCarta's technology combines geosearch and geotagging allowing users to find written content about any place.

In January Nokia announced it would offer free navigation on its cellphones and would also make available local applications and services to its mobile phone users.

The move was seen as an attempt to serve a blow to satnav makers such as TomTom and Garmin as well as Google, which offers free navigation on Motorola' Droid smartphones in the North America market.