Sprint PCS Announces Availability of Samsung Phone
Samsung Phone Becomes Second Phone Option for Sprint PCS Customers
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 1997--Sprint PCS becomes the first CDMA carrier to offer wireless consumers a choice of phones as Samsung SCH-1000 digital phones hit Sprint PCS retail and Radio Shack stores this month.
The Samsung phone joins the Sony/Sprint PCS phone in an expanding line of phones offered by Sprint PCS.
``Samsung's commitment to manufacture PCS CDMA phones is a significant step forward for the wireless industry,'' said Bruce Crair, vice president and general manager for Sprint PCS Southern California/Nevada.
``With major consumer-electronics companies like Samsung producing phones and accessories, we can offer consumers and businesses more mobile-phone choices at different price points. Samsung is a name consumers know.''
The Samsung SCH-1000 phone has a suggested retail price of $149 and comes with a desktop charger. It's small (5-3/4 inches long by 2-1/10 inches wide), slim (an inch thick) and light (7-1/2 ounces), with a standard nickel metal hydride battery that provides up to two hours of talk time or up to 20 hours of standby time. An optional extended battery gives the user up to four hours of talk time or up to 60 hours of standby.
A full line of accessories is available, including a cigarette- lighter adapter, travel charger and leather case.
The agreement to provide Sprint PCS with wireless phones represents an important first for Samsung as well. Although Samsung has supplied more than 1 million phones under its own name for South Korea's CDMA wireless network, this is the company's first major alliance with a wireless carrier in the United States.
Carlton Payton, national sales director, Samsung Telecommunications, said: ``We are proud to have Sprint PCS as our breakthrough partner in the introduction of an entire line of wireless products for North America. The SCH-1000 is the smallest and lightest CDMA PCS phone shipping today. Its thin design, large display and stylized keypad will be a hit with consumers.''
Samsung Telecommunications America Inc., a Richardson, Texas- based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Corp. Ltd., will handle all Samsung U.S. telecommunications business operations.
Sprint PCS service, phones and accessories are available to consumers through Sprint PCS stores and Radio Shack retail centers located in San Diego and Orange counties. Sprint PCS phones and accessories are also available through a number of national and local retailers, including Best Buy, Circuit City, DOW Stereo/Video, Sharper Image and Robinson's May department stores and through Cox Communications.
Sprint PCS has launched service in 58 U.S. cities, including Birmingham, Ala.; Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Little Rock, Ark.; San Diego, Sacramento, Fresno and Orange County, Calif.; Denver and Boulder, Colo.; Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Key West, Fla.; Indianapolis; Des Moines, Iowa; Wichita, Kan.; Louisville, Ky.; New Orleans; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.; Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo.; Omaha and Lincoln, Neb.; New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y.; Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Okla.; Portland, Ore.; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Nashville, Tenn.; Austin, San Antonio, McAllen, Brownsville, Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Salt Lake City; Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.; and Milwaukee.
The Sprint PCS system will be the most extensive PCS system in the United States. When the first phase of launch is complete, the Sprint PCS network will encompass 65 cities coast to coast, including 35 of the top 50 U.S. metropolitan areas. In phase two, Sprint PCS, together with its affiliates, will expand its existing service coverage to provide services under licenses recently acquired by Sprint Corp. in spectrum auctions conducted by the Federal Communications Commission.
These new licenses, when combined with Sprint PCS' and its affiliates' licenses, will give Sprint PCS unprecedented licensed coverage of nearly 260 million people in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Sprint PCS is a partnership of Sprint Corp., Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Cox Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp.
For more information, visit the Sprint PCS Web site at www.sprintpcs.com .
NOTE TO EDITORS:
Sprint PCS and Sprint Personal Communication Services are service marks of Sprint Communications Co. L.P., used under license.
For slides of the Samsung phone, call Ashley Pindell, Sprint PCS, 816/559-6702. |
