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The Price of Free E-Mail Rises
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The Price of Free E-Mail Rises
Will you pay to hang on to your Web e-mail address? Hotmail, Yahoo, and others apparently aim to find out.
An Internet Age update to the truism "there is no such thing as a free lunch" might be that there is no (longer) such a thing as a free e-mail account. The cost of a free e-mail account is on the rise. Two of the Internet's largest free Web e-mail providers, Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail, have quietly added fee services to their e-mail offerings. At the same time, both companies have also cut back the number of free Web e-mail perks. They are not alone.
Mail.com, recently bought by Net2Phone, is pushing a number of "premium services" to its 3 million users. For example, you can get POP3 access to your e-mail from a software client such as Outlook for $3.95 monthly, and e-mail forwarding for $2.95 per month. Net2Phone won't say whether its free services are losing money. Last August, free Web mail provider USA.net simply gave its 7 million free e-mail customers an ultimatum: Pay $50 a year or kiss your account goodbye.
Free Web e-mail isn't likely to disappear entirely, but increasingly services are charging for popular features such as e-mail forwarding and extra storage. The problem, says David Ferris, president of Ferris Research, is that "these services simply aren't paying for themselves." The challenge for Hotmail, Yahoo, and many others is to wean customers off free services and turn them into paying customers, Ferris says.
Potentially affected are Internet users who depend on some 150 million free Web-based e-mail accounts, as estimated by market researchers at IDC.
I knew this was coming. It was just a matter of time! I feel when you pay for internet service e-mail should be included with the service! What about lost e-mails? Or e-mail service not working! Are they going to reimburse you? Soon you will be charged to access certain web sites.
The Article
Source: PC World
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I would pay for webbased email if they promised no spam, and made it work.
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both my isps give me email addresses (more than one if i want) free of charge with the service. i think its a bit much to ask hotmail and yahoo to offer free email if its unprofitable. pay for the damn thing if you want email.
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By
SKYHN
on
01-26-2002, 11:05 AM
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Ive got a hotmail account that I have had for about 3 or 4 years. If hotmail went to a full payservice, it had better be good because as it is right now, theres no way I would pay for what im getting.
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Save The Internet!  |
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By
Freak
on
01-26-2002, 01:16 PM
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i get about 30 pieces of spam per day using hotmail, after automatic filters and custom filters about 2-3 make it to my inbox. Not too bad I guess.
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Quote:
Originally posted by TotalRecall
The internet is dying.
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No, the internet is maturing.
The whole free aspect of the internet was cool for a while, but until the united states gets their ass in gear and starts putting in proper infrastructure for massive bandwidth, limitations and costs are forcing sites to charge money, or go under. |
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Quote:
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Soon you will be charged to access certain web sites.
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Some sites are doing that already!  |
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This is not good, period. I have been using the internet since it was ONLY dial up and you logged into a UNIX shell.
The Internet was created by the DoD (Al Gore, yeah right!) but when us the people got a hold of it, the internet became something different. The internet is all about FREEDOM of information (notice the work free in there?).
I think things will be ok if Yahoo / MS offer free limited email access, but if they go to charging people for basic email, things are going to get bad. I know that I will not give them a cent. I will just install a mail server and be my own email service provider.
To sum it up - "THIS SUCKS"
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freedom of information does not necessarily mean free information.
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I know but that’s not the point.
In today’s world everyone wants a peace of my money. Everyone trying to up sell me on there "better services" The internet was the one place where "what you see is what you get" till now.
They say after all the extra spam you get in your web based email it still is costing them $1 a month. If people start paying for this service it will be $1 now. 10 years from now it will be $10.
Once you open the door, they just walk all over us. People need make sure they DONT start paying for these things.
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Well, the web has only been backed by free money till now. Now that investors aren't willing to throw money in to the fire, the sites actually have to MAKE money now.
How do you suppose they'll do that without charging?
Afterall, what services can you get for free in real life? Why would the web be any different?
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why do you think these companies should lose money for your convenience? its perfectly reasonable to charge for services that cost them money to maintain. or would you ask a mechanic to do your oil changes for free?
they are providing a service. that costs money. they need to recoup that money somehow. they are NOT charitable organizations.
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