SBC Communications Announces Plans to Offer Email-Only Information Appliance and Service - eMessage - Product Announcement

Cambridge Telcom Report, August 30, 1999

The digital divide will begin to narrow in the next few weeks for many consumers when SBC Communications Inc. introduces a simple and affordable email-only communications system, called eMessage, that forgoes the use of a personal computer to send email via the Internet.

SBC is the first major telecommunications provider to announce plans to broadly market this innovative technology.

SBC's eMessage will feature a lightweight, 7-inch by 10-inch keyboard device, with a flip-up display screen, that attaches to a standard phone, and includes the email service from SBC's award-winning Internet companies. The unit will retail for under $180, and the monthly email-only Internet service will cost under $10 a month, and even less if a customer prepays a year's service. SBC plans to roll out eMessage within a month.

"eMessage will help bridge the information technology gap for the 50 percent of U.S. households that do not have a home computer," said Steve Dimmitt, SBC marketing vice president. "And for the technologically savvy, eMessage represents a convenient and easy way to communicate via email because it doesn't require the time to turn on a computer and log online."

Dimmitt said SBC recently signed a private-label agreement with CIDCO Incorporated, which will allow it to offer its customers a customized version of CIDCO's email-only text messaging unit. The CIDCO equipment will include numerous enhancements by SBC, including the ability to deliver Caller ID service,(a) one of SBC's most popular calling options, with a subscriber rate as high as 70 percent in some of the company's markets.

Dimmitt said one of eMessage's advantages over the traditional personal computer will be its convenience and portability. Users read or type emails, then plug into any phone line and push a button to send new email or retrieve incoming email all in a matter of seconds. The unit also includes a printer port connection for use with most standard printers.

Operational on AA batteries or electricity, the compact unit weighing about 2 pounds, less than a third of the average laptop's weight, will be easily portable for reading or writing email offline at any location away from a phone line or an electrical outlet. Additionally, the eMessage unit can easily be moved to different phone jacks in the home.

"Our customers, like consumers everywhere, are looking for new and better tools to help meet their continuing need for communications and messaging," said Steve Dimmitt, vice president of marketing for SBC. "The simplicity and affordability of eMessage will deliver information technology to customers who have been traditionally on the low end of the technology curve."

eMessage will be available in California from Pacific Bell and in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas from Southwestern Bell. Customers will be able to order both the eMessage equipment and service with one phone call.

Financial parameters of the agreement between SBC and CIDCO were not released. Detailed information on product pricing and ordering will be made available later.

SBC's Internet companies are known for high-quality, reliable network that consistently receives A and A ratings from objective industry authorities such as Inverse Network Technology, a leading provider of measurement services that monitors ISP network performance. SBC's Internet companies also have been cited as having the best overall customer care for ISPs by the Washington Competitive Group, an independent Washington, D.C., based research organization.

Southwestern Bell Telephone, Pacific Bell Telephone, Southwestern Bell Internet Services, and Pacific Bell Internet Services are companies of SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com), a global leader in the telecommunications industry, with 52 million voice grade equivalent lines and 8.3 million wireless customers across the United States, as well as investments in telecommunications businesses in nine foreign countries. Under the Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, SNET, Nevada Bell and Cellular One brands, SBC, through its subsidiaries, offers a wide range of innovative services. SBC offers local and long-distance telephone service, wireless communications, data communications, paging, Internet access, and messaging, as well as telecommunications equipment, and directory advertising and publishing. SBC has more than 130,000 employees and its annual revenues rank it in the top 50 among Fortune 500 companies.

(a) Note: requires subscription to CallerID service.