E-mail over the phone

Sprint today launched a new Internet program with two services that help users send and receive their e-mail or voice messages more efficiently.

The Sprint Messenger service offers two applications – Email on the Go, which lets users receive e-mail messages on any phone; and One to Many Messaging, which lets users send a single voice or e-mail message to a group of recipients.

The Email on the Go service can be a good way to stay on top of e-mail when users don’t have access to their Internet account, Sprint says. The service lets users forward e-mail messages from multiple accounts to any phone. When the message is forwarded to the phone, a customer sees the first 160 characters of the message, then has the option of pressing a button so save, delete or have it read back using a text-to-speech engine. After the message is played, the user can save, reply or forward. When forwarding or replying, the user records a voice message that is converted and sent as an e-mail attachment. Users also have the option of choosing which e-mail addresses can be forwarded to the phone.

The One to Many Messaging service can be used to send messages to any device, including a phone, fax, e-mail account, pager, PDA or even as an instant message. This service is aimed at users who belong to specific groups (such as a youth team, church group, civic officials, etc.), and can eliminate phone trees or sending multiple messages from each user.

Sprint is offering a free one-month trial of the service. Go to this Web site for more details. After the trial, each service will be sold separately, at $4.95 per month, Sprint says.