SA's first cellphone operator has introduced a range of speaking phones for the visually-impaired.
Vodacom today announced it would offer three Nokia handsets - the Nokia C6 Zooms phone, Nokia E6 and Nokia C6 speaking phones for visually-impaired users.
According to Vodacom, the Nokia E6 and Nokia C6 speaking phones, which have a qwerty keyboard and touch-screen, come preloaded with Talks software. “This software converts text to speech, enabling visually-impaired customers to view, create and edit contacts, send and receive SMS or e-mail messages, and obtain signal and battery strength.”
The Nokia C6 Zooms phone comes preloaded with Zooms software, which magnifies font sizes - “making it easier for customers with low vision to access and use their cellphones”.
Managing executive of commercial development at Vodacom, Chris Ross, says mobile Internet - for one thing - has changed the way people use cellphones. “Things have moved on from the days of just using a cellphone to make a call and, with this new range of smartphones, visually-impaired customers can also take that next step and unlock the power of the Internet via mobile.”
While final pricing is determined by the individual retail outfits selling the devices, Vodacom has released recommended pricing for both prepaid and contract customers.
For the prepaid market, the Nokia C6 speaking phone will retail from about R2 699, the Nokia E6 speaking phone at R4 299, and the Nokia C6 Zooms phone at R2 699.
For contract customers, the three smartphones are available on Vodacom's Everyday Off-peak 120 package (per minute billing only), which includes the handset, 100MB of data per month for six months and 120 off-peak minutes per month.
The Nokia C6 speaking phone costs around R135 per month, while the Nokia E6 speaking phone contract goes for about R179 per month, and the Nokia C6 Zooms phone also about R135 per month.
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