[mod.telecom] AT&T mail

root@BANG.UUCP (03/06/86)

MIS-Week just released a story on a new commercial electronic mail 
system by AT&T.

I'm not sure what they have to offer or what the costs will be but I
am intrigued by an interesting feature where they will forward your incoming
mail to your home UUCP account.

I'm lookng for details if anyone has info.  The AT&T information number
for it is (800) 367-7225 ext. 720.  They will send literature but are otherwise
uninformed.

Bret Marquis
(sdcsvax,ihnp4) bang!bam
bang!bam@NOSC.ARPA

JSOL@BUCS20.BUNET (Jon Solomon) (03/07/86)

I just called the number and at least on this coast they are more informative.

Their service seems to be designed to compete with MCI Mail (surprise!). 
For $2.00/month you can maintain a mailbox on their system. You can have
mail forwarded to your unix machine for a fee. If you send mail out from
your unix machine into their network the service is free (I'll bet there's
just a uucp path). Inside the system they charge for outgoing mail but
not incoming mail. (This leaves a small hole where a company can have
field mailboxes in the system designed to receive broadcast messages,
and the originator can be on a unix system, and no additional charges
would incur). The rates are quite reasonable (40c for less than 400
characters, 80c for 400-7500 chars, and probably higher for more).

If I didn't have the vast resources of the ARPA Internet at my
fingertips, I'd consider this service a viable alternative.

Cheers,
--JSol