MCI Mail
MCI Mail was a commercial e -mail service by MCI Communications (later MCI WorldCom ) and is considered the first commercial e -mail service in the United States. He was operated from 1983 until 2003. The users connected typically via modem over a telephone line with the service and were able to send messages to other users of MCI Mail, as well as telex or regular mail addresses. The system was developed under the direction of Vinton G. Cerf.
History
The e -mail service was on September 23, 1983 in Washington, DC at a press conference of the founder and chairman of MCI, William G. McGowan, presented and started.
The service
Access to the original MCI Mail service was prepared by connecting a modem to a normal telephone line. The users were able to send in the location text messages to other users that they also received an e- mail or telex or printed and were mailed.
Messages that have been sent to postal addresses were printed on a laser at an MCI Mail print site, put into an envelope and shipped via United States Postal Service. This cost per page and one between two dollars. This offer was very successful, since at the time there were only a few affordable laser printer with letter quality for consumers. Most customers could afford low quality, which were not adequate for business correspondence only dot matrix printer. It has also saved the way to the post.
The offer allowed the users between the possibilities of overnight and the 4-hour delivery to select. The 4-hour service was particularly in demand, because no one else offered the opportunity to print a document shall be served within that time frame. There were a number of printing stations in the United States. The most popular were in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles. There was also an option to print in Hawaii. It has even been tried with a station in Brussels to expand internationally.
The letter delivery service was later discontinued because of high operating costs, the increasing use of home printers with letter quality and the use of e -mail.
The range of services has since been extended so that users could send e- mail to other users in other e- mail networks and Faxes. Various programs have been developed to simplify the use of e- mail, such as Lotus Express, Norton Commander's MCI Mail and Mail Room by Sierra Solutions.
MCI Mail also offered gateways for sending faxes, called Fax Dispatch ( only outgoing), telex, called Telex Dispatch ( incoming and outgoing) and X.400 connection (allows MCI mail users secure e -mail exchange with 23 other mail services in the world). You may also see an Internet gateway was provided. MCI mail users has been an Internet address from either their MCI -mail ID, their username or their real name (eg [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected] ) assigned.
In addition, MCI Mail supported by its REMS addressing ( Remote Electronic Mail System) Gateways to Local Area Networks. REMS addressing had the form { displayName } | REMS: { rems name} / {network mapping on the email server}, eg Bob Smith | REMS: XYZCompany / ntserver / email / bsmith.
MCI Mail also supports read receipts, batch codes and cost accounting for e -mail.
Access to MCI Mail was carried out typically by means of dial-up modem, either by calling a nationwide direct-dial number, a toll free number, or from overseas numbers of PTT ( Postal Telephone / Telegraph) companies around the world.
The service was sold mainly through company- external agents. These received a commission for that use. One of these agents, Gary Oppenheimer, invented what is considered the first electronically delivered newsletter. This PEN ( Periodic Electronic Newsletter ) was distributed from August 1985 to November 1996 and provided both the customer and the many employees of MCI information about available additional functions and hints and tricks of using MCI Mail. The article in the last issue of the PEN Newsletter concerned the issues Concert Packet Switching Service for MCI Mail, MCI Mail Telephone update, Cellular Access to MCI Mail, List of Access Numbers Cellular, Logon Procedures, X.400 Access via Frame Relay, MCI Never Busy Fax, mail Room / Mail Plus & MIME, internetMCI software, domainTNG, newsgroups / Lists and Web Surfing via MCI Mail.
MCI Mail was based on the DEC VAX computer system 780 with DECMAIL on the VMS operating system.