Press News
[freemail] extra: the free mailing system is expanded by comfort and paying services
Budapest, August 15, 2003
The currently available services of [freemail] will continue to be free
Axelero
Internet Hungary is adding extra services to [freemail], the most
popular free mailing system in Hungary. Larger storage space and the
filtering of unwanted advertisements (spam) are available on demand,
for a charge. Besides the introduction of paying services Axelero is
raising the size of incoming message storage capacity free for every
[freemail] user, to 5 MB.
Although the popularity of [freemail] and the number of mailboxes keep
growing – on July 31 there were 1 358 107 mailboxes in operation –
according to an online market survey users who are otherwise satisfied
with the quality of service would like to get rid of the limitations
typical of free mailing systems. Most of them would like more storage
space, and many are disturbed by the flood of spamming messages.
Therefore, in order to raise the quality of [freemail] service, from
the middle of August new paying services will be added under the name
of [freemail] extra.
In the future, when someone opens a new mailbox on [freemail], he will
be offered two new services as well. One is the opportunity to expand
the default storage space of 5 Mbytes to 10 Mbytes for HUF 500 gross
for a period of three months (the maximum allowed storage space is 55
Mbytes). The other is spam filtering, which also costs HUF 500 gross
for three months. The filtering software checks every incoming message,
scores the features typical of advertising messages and private
messages, then it will further manage the messages according to the
filtering level defined by the user. Besides the introduction of paying
services, Axelero is raising the size of incoming message storage
capacity free for every [freemail] user, to 5 MB.
Every customer with a [freemail] address is able to subscribe to the
extra services. At present the services can be ordered in the form of a
premium rate SMS message sent from Westel and Pannon cards, the desired
services will be activated a few minutes after order placement. Axelero
also provides a call center for the ordering of these services.
A few words on Freemail
Freemail was launched in November 1997 by C3 Cultural and Communication
Center, an entity established with the cooperation of Soros Foundation,
Silicon Graphics Hungary and Matav. When C3 was transformed into a
foundation in 1999, Freemail passed into the possession of Matávnet
(legal predecessor of Axelero) and became part of the [origo] portal.
The system continues to be operated by the staff of C3.
In the beginning the service was running on only one – Linux-powered –
computer. The first major technological change took place in February
1999, at that time there were already six machines supporting mailing
services. After increasing demands and the parallel developments, today
the system of [freemail] comprises 18 computers located in the Data
Park of Axelero.
Subject to the agreement concluded between Soros Foundation and
MATÁVnet, [freemail] will be operated in the long-term with unchanged
access methods (http, pop3 and dial-up pop3) and continues to be a free
service, with continuous technical and content developments.
The system is under continuous development, in response to the needs of
current users and e-mail traffic. It has 1 358 107 live mailboxes, with
an estimated user base of 750 307 people.
Simultaneously with the implementation of the new design of [freemail]
several long-awaited comfort services were also introduced. They
include virus scanning, the opportunity to specify e-mail delivery
rules (filters), the opportunity to save incomplete messages, the
opportunity to save the messages onto disk, the opportunity to sort the
messages in the individual files according to any parameter (sender,
subject, size, date of delivery) and confirmation on reading.