[From the Java One conference, Sprint announced the Sprint Developer Sandbox, new aggregation providers and pitched its upcoming Sprint Application Developer Conference in October.]

Overland Park, Kan. -- Continuing its leadership in employing an open strategy, Sprint (NYSE:S - News) announced today, from the JavaOne conference, its newest programs for application developers:

* Sprint Developer Sandbox will provide access to tools to let developers quickly and easily create location-based services (LBS) applications, messaging applications and more.

* Three additional location aggregation providers, Alcatel-Lucent, LOC-AID and Useful Networks, to help developers create new location-based services for Sprint customers.

* The ninth annual Sprint Application Developer Conference, Oct. 26-28, 2009, which, for the first time, will be open to all developers.

As a pioneering user of the Java mobile platform, Sprint is participating in JavaOne for the ninth consecutive year, offering its latest tools for developers to create wireless applications and mobile content for consumer and business customers when, where and how they want it.

“We want developers to have the tools they need to create useful, engaging and exciting applications for our customers – whether they’re for individuals and families or small business and enterprise customers,” said Kevin Packingham, senior vice president of Product and Technology Development for Sprint. “The Sprint Developer Sandbox and new location platform enablers bring tools from outside Sprint into our open Application Developer Program to allow more innovation than developers have in other closed communities.”

First carrier to offer free Developer Sandbox

Sprint is the first U.S. carrier to offer the application developer community a free Developer Sandbox (http://developer.sprint.com/sandbox), open to all Sprint registered developers, that provides developers access to an expansive set of Sprint network, handset and product capabilities to use in creating applications. The first Sprint Developer Sandbox, which launches today, is the Sprint Network and Product Services Sandbox. The sandbox provides an easy-to-use format where developers can take the Sprint services and mashup with other available third-party services to create innovative web pages and applications. The new Developer Sandbox simplifies the developers’ ability to leverage Sprint’s powerful network services. Sprint will be launching additional sandboxes in the Sprint Developer Sandbox that highlight a specific set of development capabilities.

Open location platform expands with Alcatel-Lucent, LOC-AID and Useful Networks

In addition, Sprint announced that it is expanding its open location platform with three additional companies to give developers more ways to create new location-based services for Sprint customers. Sprint launched its open location platform in December with Veriplace and WHERE, and today announced the addition of Alcatel-Lucent, LOC-AID and Useful Networks. These platforms protect the privacy and security of Sprint customers while offering third-party mobile, Web, WAP, SMS, and widget developers a consistent way to create applications that use the customer’s location information with prior permission to provide customized information and services.

All of the platforms provide developers with simple, powerful tools to create and launch location-enabled applications, accelerating and simplifying certification and on-boarding applications that use GPS, triangulation and other location services to provide useful information to customers, while protecting customer privacy.

Developer conference open to all

Sprint plans to hold its ninth annual Application Developer Conference later this year. 2009 marks the first time the conference will be open to the entire developer community. It will be held Oct. 26-28 in Santa Clara, Calif. Registration is now open at http://developer.sprint.com. The conference will focus on educating the developer community on current Sprint capabilities across devices, networks and platforms, as well as provide compelling and useful tools that can immediately be used to develop applications, content, machine-to-machine devices and unified communication solutions relevant to the market.

Web, WAP, SMS and mobile application developers can learn more about how to create applications for Sprint phones using location information by visiting the Sprint developer site at http://developer.sprint.com.

Since Sprint first launched the wireless web in 2001, the company has deployed an open Internet approach. Sprint’s Application Developer Program is an open forum designed to give the developer community the tools they need to create innovative applications for Sprint devices.

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