Sprint today launched a new SMS service that allows customers to send a text message to a landline phone. Text-to-speech technology converts the alphanumeric message to a voice recording, which the recipient hears once picking up the receiver.

Sprint has been paying much closer attention to its messaging services of late after neglecting SMS for years. Though SMS has been available as a standard feature on GSM networks since the technology's inception, Sprint and other CDMA carriers only in the last two years have upgraded their entire handset lines for full SMS capability. Many of its older handsets in service, however, still only support one-way messaging or proprietary two-way messaging clients that don't interoperate with other carriers' networks.

But Sprint has been building up a much larger portfolio, launching instant messaging services with AOL, Yahoo and MSN; mobile chat capabilities and a voice SMS service which allows customers to send recorded messages to a messaging inbox or e-mail address. Sprint has also launched a host of MMS services, offering video and audio multimedia along with standard picture messaging.