Sprint Introduces World Phones - Samsung IP-A790

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Sprint is introducing its first digital quad-band phone, the Sprint PCS International Phone IP-A790 by Samsung. When used with a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, the phone allows customers to make voice calls on both CDMA and GSM networks in more than 130 countries where Sprint has roaming agreements with other carriers. The phone also functions as a multimedia device on the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network so users can view on-demand streaming video and audio and shoot video clips with the embedded camera and camcorder.

The mobile phone supports Sprint PCS Video Mail, Picture Mail (MMS), multimedia streaming services and text messaging and is equipped with a 262K-color TFT main display, a 65K-color TFT external display; an MPEG4 video screen saver, an internal phone book that stores up to 500 contacts and advanced voice- recognition capabilities. The phone also supports "+" key dialing so the phone will automatically dial the international access code for the country from which the customer is calling.

Sprint has established flat-rate pricing for GSM countries where it has roaming agreements in place. Customers will pay US$1.50 per minute for making or receiving calls in those countries with long-distance included. Rates for the remaining covered countries where frequencies supported include CDMA and AMPS are US$.50 to US$.99 per minute plus varying long-distance rates, depending on where the call originates.

The IP-A790 by Samsung will be available beginning in March 2005 in Sprint business sales channels, Sprint Stores and online, for a suggested retail price of US$549.99.