• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 9, 2005

Hoping to capitalize on the ballooning wireless data-service market, Sprint on Wednesday said it enlisted Yahoo! to provide paying customers with an improved e-mail service for mobile devices.

The premium service, which will use a new Yahoo! Mail for Mobile client, costs $2.99 a month, but is faster and easier to access, and it features a PC-like interface. Also, an optional instant-messaging feature is being offered at standard text-messaging rates, Sprint representatives said.

Yahoo! and Sprint have an ongoing relationship whereby Sprint's PCS Vision customers can send and receive e-mails, files, and photos from their mobile phones.

And while Yahoo! Mail for Mobile is currently a free service, the two companies are hopeful that customers will find the improved features irresistible. "Sprint recognizes the increasing desire of customers to have a more robust messaging experience on their handset," John Styers, director of data communications services at Sprint, said in a statement.

The service is initially only available to customers with Sprint PCS Multimedia MM A700 phones by Samsung, the MM 7400 and 5600 versions by Sanyo, and Sprint PCS Vision Smart Device Treo 600 and 650 from PalmOne.