MCI Mail
Encyclopedia
MCI Mail was a commercial email
service that was operated by MCI Communications Corp.
(abbreviated "MCI") during the period 1983 - 2003. The service is widely credited with being the first commercial email service in the United States.
.
connected to a standard telephone land line. A user connected to the MCI Mail service was able to send a text-based email to another MCI Mail user, a telex, or a message that would be printed and delivered by the postal service.
Messages destined to postal addresses were laser printed
at an MCI Mail print site, placed in an envelope and mailed via the U.S. Postal Service. The cost was $1 to $2 per page. The service was attractive because there were few affordable letter-quality
laser printers available to consumers at the time. Most consumers could only afford low quality dot matrix printer
s, which were not suitable for business correspondence. It also saved a trip to the post office.
The service also allowed users to select overnight and 4-Hour delivery options. The 4-hour service in particular was attractive as no one offered the ability to print a document and have it delivered in this time frame. There were a number of print facilities around the U.S. which offered this service. The most popular locations were New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. At one point there was a print facility in Hawaii and they also ventured into the international space with a location in Brussels, Belgium.
The hard copy delivery service was later discontinued due to the high operating cost, the increasing availability of letter-quality home printers, and the increased use of email.
Later the service offering was expanded so that users could send messages to email users on other email networks, and to fax terminals. Several email clients were developed to facilitate email handling, including Lotus Express, Norton Commander
's MCI Mail utility and MailRoom from Sierra Solutions.
MCI Mail also offered gateways to faxing called Fax Dispatch (email to fax, outbound only), telex called Telex Dispatch (in and outbound), and X.400 connectivity (enabling MCI Mail users to securely exchange email with over 23 other email services around the world). Eventually, a gateway to the Internet was also provided. MCI Mail users were assigned an internet address of either their MCI Mail ID @ mcimail.com (e.g. 218-0241@mcimail.com), their user name @mcimail.com (e.g. bsmith@mcimail.com) or their formal name@mcimail.com (e.g. Bob_Smith@mcimail.com).
Additionally, MCI Mail supported gateways to local area networks by use of its REMS ("Remote Electronic Mail System") addressing. REMS addressing took the form of {display name}|REMS:{rems name}/{network mapping on the email server}. For example, Bob Smith|REMS:XYZCompany/ntserver/email/bsmith.
MCI Mail also supported read receipts, charge codes, allowing for cost accounting for email.
Access to MCI Mail was typically by dial up modem, either calling to a number of DID nationwide, a toll free number, or through overseas numbers provided by PTT (Postal Telephone/Telegraph) companies around the world.
The service was primarily sold using a third-party "agency program". Agents were paid a commission on usage. One of these agents, Gary Oppenheimer, created what is believed to be the first electronically delivered newsletter. Called the PEN (Periodic Electronic Newsletter), it was published from August 1985 until November 1996, and provided both customers and many MCI employees with information on a few features available as well as hints and tricks for using MCI Mail. The final edition of the PEN newsletter included articles on
-Concert Packet Switching Service for MCI Mail
-MCI Mail Telephone update
-Cellular Access to MCI Mail
-List of Access Cellular Numbers
-Logon Procedures
-X.400 Access via Frame Relay
-MCI Never Busy Fax
-Mailroom/Mailplus & MIME
-internetMCI software
-domainTNG
-Newsgroups/Lists
-Web Surfing via MCI Mail
MCI Mail was a custom software application developed for MCI by DEC (Digital Equipment Corp.) Software Services organization, running under the VMS operations system, initially on VAX 780's.
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
service that was operated by MCI Communications Corp.
MCI Communications
MCI Communications Corp. was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and ushered in the competitive long-distance telephone industry. It was headquartered in Washington,...
(abbreviated "MCI") during the period 1983 - 2003. The service is widely credited with being the first commercial email service in the United States.
History
The MCI Mail service was launched on September 23, 1983 in Washington DC during a press conference that was hosted by MCI's founder and Chairman, William G. McGowanWilliam G. McGowan
William G. McGowan was an American entrepreneur, and founder and chairman of MCI Communications. His role as leader of MCI also caused him to play an important role in the breakup of AT&T while growing the startup company into a company that in 1991 had US$9.5 billion in revenues and controlled...
.
Service Offering
Access to the initial MCI Mail service was provided using a modemModem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
connected to a standard telephone land line. A user connected to the MCI Mail service was able to send a text-based email to another MCI Mail user, a telex, or a message that would be printed and delivered by the postal service.
Messages destined to postal addresses were laser printed
Laser printer
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers , laser printers employ a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced...
at an MCI Mail print site, placed in an envelope and mailed via the U.S. Postal Service. The cost was $1 to $2 per page. The service was attractive because there were few affordable letter-quality
Letter-quality printer
A letter-quality printer was a form of computer impact printer that was able to print with the quality typically expected from a business typewriter such as an IBM Selectric.A letter-quality printer operates in much the same fashion as a typewriter...
laser printers available to consumers at the time. Most consumers could only afford low quality dot matrix printer
Dot matrix printer
A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like the print mechanism on a typewriter...
s, which were not suitable for business correspondence. It also saved a trip to the post office.
The service also allowed users to select overnight and 4-Hour delivery options. The 4-hour service in particular was attractive as no one offered the ability to print a document and have it delivered in this time frame. There were a number of print facilities around the U.S. which offered this service. The most popular locations were New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. At one point there was a print facility in Hawaii and they also ventured into the international space with a location in Brussels, Belgium.
The hard copy delivery service was later discontinued due to the high operating cost, the increasing availability of letter-quality home printers, and the increased use of email.
Later the service offering was expanded so that users could send messages to email users on other email networks, and to fax terminals. Several email clients were developed to facilitate email handling, including Lotus Express, Norton Commander
Norton Commander
Norton Commander was a prototypical orthodox file manager , written by John Socha and released by Peter Norton Computing . NC is a file manager which provides a text user interface on top of DOS. It was officially produced by Symantec between 1986 and 1998...
's MCI Mail utility and MailRoom from Sierra Solutions.
MCI Mail also offered gateways to faxing called Fax Dispatch (email to fax, outbound only), telex called Telex Dispatch (in and outbound), and X.400 connectivity (enabling MCI Mail users to securely exchange email with over 23 other email services around the world). Eventually, a gateway to the Internet was also provided. MCI Mail users were assigned an internet address of either their MCI Mail ID @ mcimail.com (e.g. 218-0241@mcimail.com), their user name @mcimail.com (e.g. bsmith@mcimail.com) or their formal name@mcimail.com (e.g. Bob_Smith@mcimail.com).
Additionally, MCI Mail supported gateways to local area networks by use of its REMS ("Remote Electronic Mail System") addressing. REMS addressing took the form of {display name}|REMS:{rems name}/{network mapping on the email server}. For example, Bob Smith|REMS:XYZCompany/ntserver/email/bsmith.
MCI Mail also supported read receipts, charge codes, allowing for cost accounting for email.
Access to MCI Mail was typically by dial up modem, either calling to a number of DID nationwide, a toll free number, or through overseas numbers provided by PTT (Postal Telephone/Telegraph) companies around the world.
The service was primarily sold using a third-party "agency program". Agents were paid a commission on usage. One of these agents, Gary Oppenheimer, created what is believed to be the first electronically delivered newsletter. Called the PEN (Periodic Electronic Newsletter), it was published from August 1985 until November 1996, and provided both customers and many MCI employees with information on a few features available as well as hints and tricks for using MCI Mail. The final edition of the PEN newsletter included articles on
-Concert Packet Switching Service for MCI Mail
-MCI Mail Telephone update
-Cellular Access to MCI Mail
-List of Access Cellular Numbers
-Logon Procedures
-X.400 Access via Frame Relay
-MCI Never Busy Fax
-Mailroom/Mailplus & MIME
-internetMCI software
-domainTNG
-Newsgroups/Lists
-Web Surfing via MCI Mail
MCI Mail was a custom software application developed for MCI by DEC (Digital Equipment Corp.) Software Services organization, running under the VMS operations system, initially on VAX 780's.