Sprint and Sanyo Partner to Offer Internet-Ready Wireless Phone - Sprint PCS, Sanyo Fisher Co - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Sept 27, 1999

Sprint PCS, the nation's largest all-digital, all-PCS wireless network, and Sanyo Fisher Company, a division of Sanyo North America Corporation and the U.S. marketer of Sanyo brand telecommunications and audio/video products, Thursday announced an exclusive agreement valued at approximately $140 million. Under the agreement, Sanyo Fisher Company will supply Sprint PCS with its new Internet-ready, dual-band, Data/Fax/MiniBrowser-equipped CDMA/PCS phone, to be marketed as the Sanyo SCP-4000. The Sanyo 4000 is expected to be available in Sprint PCS Centers and RadioShack stores nationwide, beginning October 1. Sprint PCS and Sanyo will celebrate the contract during a three-day event in Kansas City this weekend via several appearances by the Sanyo Blimp including Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium during the Chiefs game.

"We are extremely pleased to announce our continuing partnership with Sanyo, providing Sprint PCS customers with crystal clear voice calling and clear, simple access to the advanced wireless Internet features available over the Sprint PCS Wireless Web on the new Sanyo SCP-4000," said Phil Garrison, Vice President and General Manager, Subscriber Equipment, for Sprint PCS. "Sales success and customer satisfaction with Sanyo's SCP-3000 phone have been outstanding, and we look forward to the multi-faceted SCP-4000 and its successors."

"Sanyo Fisher Company is very proud to partner with Sprint PCS, the leading provider of all-digital PCS service in the United States," said Isaac Levy, vice president, sales and marketing for Sanyo Fisher Company's Communications/Information Technology Division. "Sanyo's association with Sprint PCS, begun last year with our first U.S. digital phone, has been an extraordinary success from the outset. In addition to the Sanyo SCP-4000, we are collaborating with Sprint PCS to introduce several new phones in the year 2000."

Sprint PCS operates the largest 100 percent digital, 100 percent PCS nationwide wireless network in the United States, already serving the majority of the nation's metropolitan areas including more than 4,000 cities and communities across the country. Sprint PCS has licensed PCS coverage of nearly 270 million people in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, visit the Sprint PCS web site at http://www.sprintpcs.com. Sprint PCS is a wholly-owned tracking group of Sprint Corporation trading on the NYSE under the symbol "PCS."

Sprint PCS is a global communications company at the forefront of integrating long distance, local and wireless communications services and of the world's largest carriers of Internet traffic. Sprint built and operates the United States' only nationwide all digital, fiber optic network and is a leader in advanced data communications services. Sprint has $17 billion in annual revenues and serves more than 20 million business and residential customers.

Sanyo Fisher Company is a division of Sanyo North America Corporation, a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., a $17 billion manufacturer and distributor of consumer and commercial electronics and electric products. Sanyo and Fisher products marketed in the U.S. by Sanyo Fisher Company include PCS and Digital Spread Spectrum cordless phones, audio/video components, portable and mobile audio equipment, televisions, VCRs, facsimile machines, digital still cameras, home appliances, LCD projectors, security video equipment and air conditioning systems. For more information, visit Sanyo's U.S. web sites at http://www.sanyo.com and http://www.sanyousa.com.