Nevada renews relay contract with Sprint

From: Kansas City Star (subscription), MO - Aug 3, 2004

By DAVID HAYES

The Kansas City Star

Overland Park-based Sprint Corp., which dominates the market in providing telecommunications relay services around the U.S., announced a deal today with the state of Nevada.

Sprint won a three-year, $1.3 million contract to provide communication services to individuals who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech disabled in that state. In agreeing to the deal, Nevada renewed its contract with Sprint for the fourth consecutive time.

"Sprint continues to be a pioneer in the field of relay services of all kinds," said Betty Hammond, administrator for relay services for Nevada.

Telecommunications relay service allows consumers who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech disabled to communicate on the phone with those who aren't hearing impaired. Deaf or impaired consumers type words either through TRS-capable phones or the Internet. A relay operator reads the consumer's comments to the hearing party, and types a response from that person back to the initial consumer.

Sprint provides telecommunications relay services to the federal government, to 31 states, in Puerto Rico and in New Zealand.

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