Sprint Chairman & CEO Gary Forsee Provides Vision for Telecom Industry in CES Keynote Address
January 09 2004 - 12:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
Sprint Chairman & CEO Gary Forsee Provides Vision for Telecom
Industry in CES Keynote Address 'Useful Innovation' and 'Integrated
Products' Key for Sprint Growth LAS VEGAS, Jan. 9
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- (Consumer Electronics Show) -- Sprint
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Forsee outlined his
vision for the future of communications and illustrated some of
Sprint's leading technologies during the closing Keynote Address of
the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show today. Key themes included the
need for what Forsee described as "useful innovation," and the
delivery of "integrated" products and services that marry the best
of the wired and wireless worlds together to bring "anywhere,
anytime" communications to customers. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001013/SPRINTLOGO ) Speaking
at the world's largest consumer electronics trade show, Forsee
discussed how telecom products have changed the way consumers and
businesses access information, buy and sell products and services,
listen to music and more as he outlined the rapid pace of progress
throughout the industry. "For Sprint, the guiding principle for
product and application development is to develop 'useful
innovation' for people," said Forsee. "Not innovation just for the
sake of innovation. "Sprint's goal with useful innovation is to
transform customers' potential into performance and performance
into power -- the power to connect, the power to share, the power
to access the world," he said. Sprint customers then helped Forsee
demonstrate his point, showing how Sprint products and services -
from camera phones to wireless data cards - helped them accomplish
goals in their personal and professional lives. Examples included:
-- Sprint PictureMail. More than 66 million pictures were shared on
the enhanced nationwide PCS network. Nearly 60 million camera
phones were sold in the U.S. last year, making it the
fastest-growing consumer tech device ever. In a dramatic example of
its usefulness, a young teen illustrated how he used his Sprint
phone to foil an abduction attempt and help the police apprehend
the suspect. -- PCS Connection Cards(TM), which provide wireless
connectivity for laptops. A Sprint customer who shoots video for
the Weather Channel illustrated how important reports on severe
weather conditions, such as hurricanes or tornados, are easily
transmitted back from the site of a major storm using this Sprint
service. -- Students and faculty from Case Western Reserve
University, one of the nation's leading independent research
universities, spoke on how integrated Sprint services -- from local
and long distance to wireless connectivity and landline broadband
-- help them better access information whenever they need it, no
matter where they are on campus. "When I speak about an integrated
experience," Forsee said, "It means connecting people wherever they
are. It means delivering voice and data across multiple platforms.
"An integrated experience enables people to read e-mail, open
attachments, view a spreadsheet or other information -- at home, at
the office, from the road, even from the beach or Little League
game," he added. "From Sprint's perspective, the integrated
experience is where the industry is going and, more importantly,
where it needs to be." During his remarks, Forsee also referenced
new services Sprint announced and demonstrated during CES,
including the Game Lobby -- a nationwide virtual mobile community
for gamers to meet, recommend games and challenge each other -- and
the PCS Vision Video Phone VM4050 by Toshiba, giving PCS Vision(SM)
customers the capability to take and send video and audio directly
from their mobile phones to anyone, anywhere on the enhanced Sprint
Nationwide PCS Network. About Sprint Sprint is a global integrated
communications provider serving more than 26 million customers in
over 100 countries. With approximately 68,000 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
communications services in 39 states and the District of Columbia
and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS
wireless network in the United States. For more information, visit
http://www.sprint.com/ .
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001013/SPRINTLOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Sprint CONTACT: Steve
Lunceford of Sprint, +1-202-487-3549, Web site:
http://www.sprintpcs.com/ http://www.sprint.com/
http://www.cesweb.org/
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