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MCI Mail was one of the first ever commercial email services in the United States and one of the largest telecommunication services in the world. Operated by MCI Communications Corp. from 1983 to 2003, MCI Mail offered its customers a low cost and effective solution for sending and receiving electronic mail.

History
The MCI Mail service officially launched on September 23, 1983, in Washington, D.C., during a press conference hosted by MCI's founder and Chairman, William G. McGowan. MCI Mail was the first commercial email service to use the internet. The service was officially decommissioned by MCI at 11:59 p.m. ET on June 30, 2003.

William G. McGowan
William G. McGowan, MCI Mail's founder and chairman, joined the corporation in 1968. With a primary goal of broadcasting the services nationally, he headed a lobbying campaign to fight for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval to expand. Upon approval by the FCC to begin working, McGowan knew he had to keep up with the challenges and threats that its biggest competitor, AT&T, imposed.

Vint Cerf
In 1982, Vint Cerf, one of the original engineers of the MCI email service, briefly served as Vice President of Digital Information Services. During his time in office, he was one of the driving forces behind the creation of MCI Mail. After a brief separation from the corporation to pursue alternative business endeavors, Cerf returned to MCI Mail in 1994 where he served as Senior Vice President of Technology Strategy.

Electronic Mail
The service initially allowed users to send electronic text-based messages to other MCI Mail users. MCI Mail also supported read receipts and charge codes, allowing for cost accounting for email. Later, the service expanded so that users could send messages to non-MCI Mail users, including users on other public messaging services, such as AT&T Mail, CompuServe, and SprintMail. Eventually, MCI Mail also provided a gateway to the Internet. MCI Mail users were assigned an email 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). Several third party vendors developed email software products to facilitate email handling from a PC. These included Lotus Express, Norton Commander's MCI Mail utility, MailRoom from Sierra Solutions, Emma. MCI developed its own MCI Mail Express and Express Lite as email clients as well. The email facility in Microsoft Bob also used MCI Mail.

Hardcopy Delivery
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 printers, 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 MCI 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 increased use of email.

Fax and Telex Dispatch
MCI Mail also offered gateways to faxing called Fax Dispatch (email to fax, outbound only) and telex called Telex Dispatch (in and outbound).

Remote Electronic Mail System (REMS)
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.

Execunet
Initiated in 1974, Execunet was a private service that allowed for customers to utilize Foreign Exchange lines. These lines were accessed only through phone dialing a designated code by the customer.

Pricing for Services

 * 1) A yearly subscription to a "mailbox" was $35.
 * 2) Paper Mail costed $2, including delivery and $5.50 outside of the United States.
 * 3) Electronic Mail cost 50 cents for the first 500 characters used.
 * 4) Faxes and Telexes started at 50 cents for delivery to the United States.

Network Technology
MCI Mail was a custom software application developed for MCI by DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation). Software Services organization, running under the VMS operating system, initially on VAX 780's, and by Hewlett-Packard, running under the MPE operating system, on HP-3000 computers with output generated on HP laser printers. .Access to the initial MCI Mail service was provided using a 110-, 300-, 1200-, 2400- or 5600- baud modem connected to a standard telephone land line. The toll-free access number for MCI Mail was (800)444-Mail. From outside the United States, MCI Mail could be accessed via local packet switching services that were offered by local telephone companies. Around 1990, access was also provided via Infonet's dedicated data network. MCI Mail branded this access service: MCI Mail Global Access.

Sales and Marketing
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, and Web Surfing via MCI Mail.

Decommission
In the mid-1990’s, the Internet became a commercialized platform offering free email services by top industry vendors such as Hotmail. This shift rocked MCI Mail’s electronic message delivery and receiving rates as customers were more inclined to use services available with no charge. In addition to an increase in industry competition, the modernization of the fax machine proved more efficient and valuable than that of MCI Mail's services.

These industry advances contributed to the eventual decommission of MCI Mail on June 30, 2003, at 11:59 P.M. ET.