Sprint Launches Premium Daily Comics With Mobile Comics
Network™
Millions of PCS Vision Subscribers to Enjoy Dilbert, Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, Dick Tracy, Zits, Baby Blues Momma and many other beloved comics on their PCS Vision Phones.
(January 21, 2004) - Hundreds of millions of Americans
read comics every day in newspapers, comic books and graphic novels. Now,
through the combined efforts of Sprint (NYSE: FON, PCS) and FunMail Inc., they
will be able to read comics anytime, anywhere on select full-color PCS Vision
Phones. These comics, powered by FunMail’s Mobile Comics Network™ (MCN),
launched nationwide on the enhanced nationwide PCS Network today. The
service will give PCS Vision customers access to a wide variety of daily comics
starring household names such as Dilbert®, Dick Tracy®, Zits®, Baby Blues®,
Momma® and Beetle Bailey®.
“MCN offers a great
selection of appealing content, delivered to the customer in a fun, innovative
way,” said John Styers, Director of Data Communications Services for
Sprint. “Comic readers can now access their favorite funnies on a device
they always have with them – their PCS Vision Phone.”
The Sprint Comics
service uses a comics “in box” that lets consumers receive a daily comic.
Consumers can choose the comics they want – say Dilbert and Hagar the Horrible –
and then those comics are delivered daily from a classic “Best Of” comics
archive. Sprint comics subscribers can scroll through the comic at their own
pace, clip favorite comics to a virtual scrapbook, and also rate comics from
“Great!” to “Blah!” The top-rated comics are available to the Sprint
Comics community in a “Top Ten” area. Each of the Sprint comics applications are
available for $1.99 per month.
“Mobile Comics
Network looks and feels fantastic on Sprint’s next-generation network and color
handsets,” said FunMail CEO Adam Lavine. “We’re extremely proud of the work
we’ve done with Sprint, and feel MCN’s daily stream of premium content will be
of great interest and value to PCS Vision subscribers.”
The Mobile Comics
Network server formats each comic for the Sprint handsets, optimizing the comic
to a consumer’s screen size. The comics are crisp and vibrant on the
Sprint phones, and can be easily and quickly downloaded anywhere on the Sprint
enhanced nationwide PCS network.
MCN offers a broad
variety of comics for a spectrum of tastes and lifestyles. Comics
available on MCN include Dilbert, Beetle Bailey, Dick Tracy, Rose Is Rose, Hagar
the Horrible, Momma, Baby Blues, Zits, Animal Crackers, Bound & Gagged, Los
Kitos, Bizarro, Broom-Hilda, Herb and Jamaal, Mother Goose & Grimm, Nancy,
Brenda Starr, Ferd’nand, The Other Coast and many more. Information is available
at www.mobilecomicsnetwork.com
About FunMail
FunMail Inc. provides
wireless messaging and premium content syndication services to carriers and
mobile solution providers worldwide. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in
Pleasanton, California, FunMail's unique technology enables delivery of premium content including comics,
wallpaper and 3G video services. FunMail is a venture-backed company led by
investment group Leo Capital Holdings of Chicago. For more information, please
visit www.funmail.com or www.mobilecomicsnetwork.com or
email bizdev@funmail.com
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 www.sprint.com
