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This Valentine's Day, Look for Love With Mobile Dating Services Through Sprint

Posted on: Monday, 7 February 2005, 09:00 CST

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Looking for love this Valentine's Day? Sprint is offering its customers access to mobile dating services that can provide great ways to flirt, chat and possibly fall in love.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001013/SPRINTLOGO )

Mobile dating services are similar to online dating services, enabling singles to create a profile, search profiles and communicate one-on-one via text messaging. With mobile dating, singles on the go aren't tied to their computer. Instead, they can browse profiles and chat anytime and anywhere they have their mobile phones with them.

Two mobile dating services are available today to Sprint customers with select Sprint PCS Vision(SM) handsets: SMS.ac and Match.com Mobile.

SMS.ac

Sprint is the first wireless provider in the United States to offer SMS.ac, the largest and fastest-growing mobile community in the world. SMS.ac offers three services:

-- Flirt - Users can search profiles and find a date for $0.25 per text

message sent and received.

-- Clubs - Users can join mobile communities to chat on any topic with

only one message to many users. A user starts a conversation with other

club members by sending the club a message. Then members of the club

can reply with messages about their thoughts and comments. A user can

send a message for free and pays $0.25 per message received. Users can

choose how many messages they want to receive per day.

-- Channels - Users can choose to receive the latest news, horoscopes,

celebrity gossip and more for $.25 per text message received.

Match.com Mobile

With Match.com Mobile, powered by Enpocket's Eden dating engine, users can sign up, explore and find matches for free. When users decide to communicate with their matches, they will be asked to subscribe for only $4.99 a month for unlimited usage. To get started, users simply create a profile or transfer their Match.com Web profile. During the month of February only, customers can sign up and communicate with their matches for free.

Sprint customers can enter a sweepstakes through text messaging for the chance to win a cruise holiday. Exclusive runner-up prizes include a crystal- covered Sprint PCS Vision Picture Phone PM-A740 by Samsung. More details on how to enter the sweepstakes and official rules can be found at http://www.sprintpcs.com/valentines .

Coming soon, Sprint will offer access to dating services from Lavalife, one of the leading providers of technology-based dating services that offers members anytime, anywhere access to like-minded singles. Lavalife Mobile offers three ways for members to communicate:

-- Voice - Users just dial #25425 (CLICK) to listen to voice greetings,

trade instant voice messages or connect live for $0.79 per minute plus

airtime.

-- Text Messaging - Users just text message the word JOIN to 25425 (CLICK)

then search, read profiles and check their Inbox for messages or

instant text message with other singles for $0.50 per message.

-- Browsing - With Lavalife Mobile's txt2CLICK subscription service,

Sprint customers can browse and search picture profiles and send and

receive messages from their private Inbox for $4.99 per month.

For more information, customers can visit http://www.lavalifemobile.com/ .

Casual data-usage rates of $.002 per kilobyte apply to all browsing and registration aspects of the mobile dating services for Sprint customers not on a Sprint PCS Vision plan.

"Mobile dating services provide convenient, fun social networks where singles can interact through text messaging, which is very popular with young adults who are on-the-go," said John Styers, director - Data Services, Sprint. "Sprint will continue to meet the diverse communications needs of its customers by providing innovative messaging options to connect with others."

According to Yankee Group research, active users of mobile interactive, entertainment and community applications, which include premium chat, flirting and dating services, are forecasted to grow from 960,000 in 2003 to 16.3 million in 2008, for a cumulative annual growth rate of 76.3 percent.

"As mobile users become more familiar with the myriad of data applications available on their handsets, they will increasingly look for those that mirror or extend popular online services," said Linda Barrabee, senior analyst, Yankee Group. "Chat, dating and flirting opportunities are among the interactive services forecasted to experience a dramatic growth in users."

To explore these dating services, Sprint PCS Vision customers can go to the Web on their Sprint PCS Vision Phone, select "messaging" and then "chat," and begin meeting new people.

About Sprint

Sprint offers an extensive range of innovative communication products and solutions, including global IP, wireless, local and multiproduct bundles. A Fortune 100 company with more than $27 billion in annual revenues in 2004, 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; an award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone; and one of the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide wireless networks in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.sprint.com/mr .

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001013/SPRINTLOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Sprint

CONTACT: Laura Tigges of Sprint, +1-913-794-3604,laura.j.tigges@mail.sprint.com

Web site: http://www.lavalifemobile.com/http://www.sprintpcs.com/valentineshttp://www.sprint.com/mr

Source: PRNewswire

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