usa.net asks subscribers to pay up

BANGALORE: usa.net’s personal e-mail service www.netaddress.com

will be charging its subscribers $29.99 per year for its e-mail service from

August 1. Anybody who subscribes after this date will have to cough up $ 49.99,

per year.

The erstwhile free e-mail service provider has cited economic conditions and

dwindling revenue from online advertising for this move. According to sources,

the mail service has some 4 million registered subscribers using its service.

With dotcoms going bust, more and more free online service providers are

opting for subscription service in order to make up for the lost revenue.

Although the number of users are expected to come down immediately after the new

revenue model is implemented, it is hoped that some loyal subscribers will

continue to use their service.

To this effect, the service provider has requested its customers to subscribe

to their new model in their the old IDs to retain their mails. Those failing to

do so will lose all the information in the mailbox after July 31.

However, here is catch, the subscription fee can be made only through online

credit card. This would mean that only credit card holders are qualified to have

a mail id at netaddress. This apart, in a bid to ensure faster processing speed

and downloads, advertisements will be no longer be on the mail site.