EHS student wins $1,000 scholarship from Sprint

From Staff Reports

   What features will phones have by Year 2050? Thanks to a winning description provided by Brad Borland, a senior at Elizabethton High School, Sprint has a better idea.
   Borland, the son of Mark and Deb Borland of Elizabethton, will receive a $1,000 scholarship for winning the "Sprint Solutions Phone of Year 2050" program. Tri-Cities and Elizabethton-area seniors were encouraged to describe the innovations they think are in store for the telecommunications industry by Year 2050.
   Brad's entry envisioned a holographic (3-D imaging) phone that would involve using a holorecorder and a holoprojector. OK, imagine videoconferencing now, with the two parties seeing each other on a television screen. Brad's phone will have the capability to see and talk with callers in three dimensions.
   Actually, holographic ideas popped up in several of the Tri-Cities entries, but Brad's explanation and supporting material took his entry to another level.
   "Today's phones use calling features in our Sprint Solutions package, such as call waiting, call forwarding and call blocking," said Jim Wilhoit, Sprint's public affairs manager.
   "We wanted to see how students think telecommunications services will continue to evolve to meet people's changing needs. Sprint was very pleased with the creative and innovative ideas it received from local students," Wilhoit continued.
   Borland's winning entry will be posted on Sprint's community Web pages at sprintcommitment.com.
   Sprint is a global communications company serving more than 26 million business and residential customers in over 70 countries.
   With approximately 75,000 employees worldwide and more than $26 billion in annual revenues, Sprint is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States' first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and Sprint's award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone.
   Sprint provides local voice and data services in 18 states and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS wireless network in the United States.