Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site cvl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!fred
From: fred@cvl.UUCP (Fred Blonder)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: MCI electronic mail
Message-ID: <662@cvl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Oct-83 22:41:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: cvl.662
Posted: Mon Oct 10 22:41:49 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Oct-83 06:07:45 EDT
Organization: U. of Md. Computer Vision Lab
Lines: 37

This is going to sound like an ad, but I think it's of general
enough interest to summarize here.  I called MCI's number (800-MCI-9900)
last week, and received thier information package in the mail this
morning.  All information in this article comes from the MCI
brochure. (I am not affilated with MCI in any way.)

There are several services they provide.  They are: 1) electronic
mail to another MCI account, 2) hardcopy mail via USPS (like E-COM),
3) hardcopy mail hand delivered by noon the next day, and 4) hardcopy
mail hand delivered within four hours. This applies only to the 48
contiguous states. There are also a few other services which are
not described in detail in the brochure, such as sending telexes,
accessing ``Dow Jones News/Retrieval'' (whatever that is), and
sending mail to mailing lists. Hardcopy mail is laser-printed, and
you can -- for ``a modest fee'' -- have them digitize your logo
and signature so that they can be included on your mail.

Their pricing structure is a little odd. There is no sign up fee,
no monthly fee, and no connect-time fee. You pay only for sending
mail. Prices are per ``ounce'', which they define as ``about 7,500
characters, which usually means 3 - 5 pages''. I suppose there's
some correspondence to standard mail, but the notion of ``ounces
of electronic mail'' is a trifle strange. Prices for the first
``ounce'' are: 1) for purely electronic mail: $1 (Considering that
there're no other charges, this isn't as high as it seems, but
UseNet still has them beat.), 2) for hardcopy USPS mail: $2 (E-COM
is only $0.26, but remember that you have the expense of a (possibly)
long-distance phone call, can only send two pages, and E-COM uses
a dot-matrix printer.), 3) for hardcopy-by-noon mail: $6, and 4)
for a four-hour letter: $25. In all cases additional ounces cost $1.

It looks as if they intend to maintain an online directory of
accounts.  When you open an account with them they credit it with
$2 to let you play around.

					Fred Blonder
					harpo!seismo!umcp-cs!fred