New Services Debut for Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Hawaii

From: PRNewswire (press release) - Jul 1, 2003

Sprint Begins to Provide Relay Services

HONOLULU, July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Mrs. Vivian Aiona, wife of Lt. Governor
James "Duke" Aiona, today helped celebrate the launch of new state services to
help assist deaf or hard-of-hearing residents. In a ceremony held at the
governor's Washington Place home, Aiona and representatives from Sprint
(NYSE: FON , PCS) demonstrated new Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) that
will help the hearing disabled communicate more readily with family, friends,
co-workers and others.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001013/SPRINTLOGO )
"I'm pleased to help usher in these new services for the citizens of
Hawaii," said Mrs. Aiona. "Starting today, Hawaii is on the leading edge in
providing innovative and easy-to-use relay services to its citizens who
require assistance to communicate."
Sprint, which today replaces Verizon as the state's provider of TRS, is
launching new relay services to allow Hawaii residents who are deaf,
hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind or speech disabled to communicate with hearing
persons on the phone through traditional, online or video relay services.
There is no charge to individuals for using the new services.
TRS in Hawaii now includes Video Relay, Internet Relay, traditional TTY
access, Hearing and Voice Carry-Over, Speech-to-Speech and more. Traditional
relay services involve a communications assistant serving as an intermediary
for phone calls between a deaf/hearing-/speech-disabled user and a hearing
party. The communications assistant speaks words typed by a deaf user on a
text telephone (TTY) or via the Internet, and relays the hearing person's
spoken response by typing back to the deaf user. Video relay service
( http://www.USAVRS.com ) uses a similar process but enables the deaf user to
communicate in American Sign Language via a computer with a web camera instead
of typing.
Sprint's new suite of services will also be easier to access than ever
before. Traditional TTY users can continue to dial 711 to reach Sprint Relay
and a host of toll-free numbers for specific relay services have been created
as well:

TTY: 1-877-447-5990
Voice to TTY: 1-877-447-5991
Voice Carry Over: 1-877-447-5992
Speech to Speech: 1-877-447-8711
Spanish: 1-877-447-7261

Sprint will be opening a new relay call center in Honolulu this fall that
will employ approximately 20 residents of Hawaii to serve as relay
communications assistants and administrative staff.
"We're happy to bring Hawaii residents new relay services," said Mike
Ligas, region vice president, Sprint Relay. "We have over 12 years experience
in assisting the deaf and hard of hearing communities with their
communications needs and we feel fortunate to be able to offer our services to
help the community."
Sprint Government Systems Division ( http://www.sprint.com/gsd ) is based in
Herndon, Va., and offers the full range of Sprint product and service
offerings for federal and state government customers. Sprint Relay began in
1990 and provides state-of-the-art technology, a full range of features and
highly-trained, professional staff to ensure users are able to communicate
easily and effectively every time they place a relay call. Relay service is
available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no restrictions on the number
of calls placed or call length. Sprint's national Internet Relay service is
available at http://www.sprintrelayonline.com ; its national Video Relay Service, a
joint venture with Communication Services for the Deaf, is available at http://www.USAVRS.com .

For questions about Sprint Relay Hawaii, contact Greg Gantt, Interim
Account Manager at 317-876-9301 (TTY) or e-mail at
greg.gantt@mail.sprint.com .

About Sprint
Sprint is a global communications company serving more than 26 million
business and residential customers in over 70 countries. With approximately
72,000 employees worldwide and nearly $27 billion in annual revenues, Sprint
is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying
state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States' first
nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and an award-winning Tier 1
Internet backbone. Sprint provides local voice and data services in 18 states
and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS wireless network
in the United States.

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