ASIA : SK Telecom, Samsung Electronics, the Korea Blind Union and Intro Mobile, have agreed to continue to develop a more upgraded 'Helper Phone' for visually handicapped people.

- 'Helper Phone' is the first mobile phone developed exclusively for visually handicapped people. By pressing number '5' on the cellular screen a little bit longer than the regular pressing time, a voice helper mode will be automatically activated for visually handicapped customer convenience.

On December 23rd, SK Telecom announced the launching of the 'Helper Phone' for visually handicapped people. The phone is designed to help blind people conveniently use their mobile phone through a voice enabled cellular function guide. This is a first for Korea.

The 'Helper Phone' is Samsung Electronics' SCH-E580 model. It offers special voice guidance to customers through the voice helper mode on the handset. To use this service, the customer presses number '5' on the cellular screen a little bit longer than the regular pressing time. This model places its focus on facilitating the visually handicapped customer's use of their mobile phone.

'Helper Phone' provides such voice directed functions as the latest incoming and outgoing call list, text message list, voice message list, and non-answered call list. Furthermore, customers can get such information as date, time, alarm and battery capacity balance, via voice guide.

The number of visually handicapped people registered to the Korea Blind Union has reached 280 thousand in Korea. Most of them are using mobile phones. They have had difficulty in using their mobile phone because they have been using the ordinary handsets developed for normally sighted people.

Using this opportunity of the launching of 'Helper Phone', SK Telecom, Samsung Electronics, the Korea Blind Union and Intro Mobile, have agreed to continue to develop more upgraded 'Helper Phones' for visually handicapped people. This will greatly contribute to the protection of the rights of visually handicapped people who have been left out of the mainstream of society. This development is due to the fact that Korea is a major power of the IT industry in the world, holding a 76% cellular phone subscription rate among the general population.

Hyung Keun Kim, vice-president of SK Telecom said, "Starting with the launching of 'Helper Phone', we have a plan to keep developing more upgraded handsets with a variety of functions that facilitate visually handicapped customer convenience in the future."