Sprint Nextel Corp. yesterday announced the launch of its Sprint WebCapTel On the Go captioning service for people who are hard of hearing, some 30 million Americans and growing.

WebCapTel on the Go is a free mobile Web-based service that displays captions of mobile conversations on Windows Mobile 6 Web browsers. The application will run on devices such as the HTC Diamond and Mogul, Palm Treo 800w, and the Motorola MOTO Q9c.

Of course, you can't see the screen on a handset while you have it up to your ear during a conversation. So, users operate two devices at the same time - one to talk and one to read. Prior to making a call, users would log onto www.sprintcaptel.com on one mobile device to read text captions of what the other party is saying. Then they would place their call on the second device.

It is commendable that this service is offered for free. Could it be, though, that operating two devices to make a phone call might be too complex for many users, particularly older users? One solution might be to develop a service that allows users to log on to the web and place a call simultaneously on the same device. With such a set-up, users would have to use the speakerphone in order to be able to read the screen.

For more details on this service, see the two news stories below:

http://www.rcrwireless.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081020/WIRELESS/810209995/1082

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=BW&date=20081020&id=9293868