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From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Re: Gateway to AT&T Mail
Message-ID: <2333@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-Jul-86 16:32:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.2333
Posted: Thu Jul 24 16:32:07 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Jul-86 07:11:46 EDT
References: <633@codas.ATT.UUCP> <123@einode.UUCP> <657@codas.ATT.UUCP> <288@micropro.UUCP> <672@codas.ATT.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Oh
Lines: 33

I'd like to remind folks that the 80 cent charge for sending a message
through AT&T Mail includes both the phone call to send it to AT&T Mail,
and the phone call for AT&T Mail to call the system on the other end.
That is, you can call the 800 number to send it to them (or a local
number if you have one in your city) and they will pay for the call
to deliver it to the next hop.  This is for 24 hour/day service, no
waiting for someone to poll you, no waiting until the rates are cheap.

When you consider how long it takes to get logged in, transfer a message,
and get logged out, you're probably looking at a 3 minute phone call.
And don't forget how many UUCP calls fail, because the login has changed,
the line was too noisy, or something else is messed up, causing you to
call every hour, time out for several minutes, and give up - this costs
for the phone call, and ties up your dialer.  You can expect AT&T mail
to keep their system running at all times, and even if it goes down,
the phone call is free.

Then note that if AT&T mail catches on, it only takes two hops to get
to your destination - one to the ATTMAIL hub, and one to the destination.
This saves a lot from the long UUCP paths that are otherwise used.

Finally, note that if your message is short (headers are free, only the
body counts) it's only 40 cents, not 80.  (If it's long, it goes up over
80 cents, in some units.)

I don't have hard data to support it (if anyone does, please let me know)
but it seems to me that sending email through AT&T Mail is probably less
expensive than via regular phone links.  Assuming you can convince your
bean counters that a bill to AT&T Mail is the same sort of overhead that
your phone bill is, there is no reason to treat an AT&T Mail UUCP link
differently than any other UUCP link for which you pay a phone bill.

	Mark