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Business Services Industry
SBC Yahoo! DSL And Dial Subscribers To Receive Major E-Mail And Instant Messaging Enhancements; E-mail enhancements include industry-leading 2 gigabytes of storage
Business Wire, June 15, 2004
Business Editors/High-Tech Writers
SAN ANTONIO & SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2004
SBC Yahoo! Messenger enhancements feature Avatars, Audibles for
enhanced self-expression and the ability to listen to music and play
games with friends
Delivering on their commitment to provide a superior Internet experience, SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced a series of significant enhancements to the SBC Yahoo! DSL and Dial services. New and existing customers will receive the enhancements at no additional charge, which will help further fuel consumer and business demand for the services.
-- SBC Yahoo! DSL and Dial members will immediately receive a
"new and improved" version of SBC Yahoo! Mail, which includes
an industry-leading 2 gigabytes of main account e-mail storage
-- 80 times as much as previously offered and 200 times the
amount offered by most other Internet service providers. The
new e-mail storage levels are enough to hold up to 1 million
pages of e-mail. Other SBC Yahoo! Mail enhancements include
no graphical advertising, a streamlined design and faster
e-mail search capabilities.
-- Within the next few weeks, SBC Yahoo! DSL and Dial members
will receive an enhanced version of the SBC Yahoo! Messenger,
which includes Avatars, customizable virtual online
personalities; Audibles, expressive, verbal animations and
leading services like LAUNCHcast Internet radio, SBC Yahoo!
Games, AddressBook and Yahoo! Search right in the messaging
window. Avatars and Audibles are the latest online craze,
especially among teens, and SBC Internet Services is the first
ISP to offer them as part of its instant messaging service.
"Once again, the SBC and Yahoo! teams are delivering the best value and most innovative features in the industry," said Ed Cholerton, vice president, SBC Internet marketing. "With great new enhancements and value pricing, our customers get the very best when they sign-up for SBC Yahoo DSL and Dial!"
E-mail has remained the top use of the Internet and a feature consumers and business customers often use to compare ISPs.
Two gigabytes is exponentially more than the 10 megabytes offered by most other providers and the previous 25 megabytes offered to SBC Yahoo! customers.
The increased storage will be particularly valuable as part of SBC Yahoo! DSL Business Edition, which continues to meet small business needs through specialized productivity tools and premium workplace content.
As part of the e-mail storage increase, SBC Yahoo! members will receive 10 times the amount of storage they previously had for sub accounts (100 MB compared to 10 MB). Users will be able to store and organize more e-mail, instead of having to frequently delete e-mails, as is the case with lower storage capacity limits, and send and receive e-mails with attachments up to 10 MB in total size.
The enhanced SBC Yahoo! Mail also eliminates graphical advertisements as part of a streamlined Web interface, giving customers an even better e-mail experience. SBC Yahoo! Mail continues to provide popular safety and security features including built-in anti-virus protection, SpamGuard Plus and AddressGuard(TM). Unlike some other e-mail services, SBC Yahoo! Mail works through both a Web interface and with popular e-mail programs.
Enhanced SBC Yahoo! Messenger
SBC Yahoo! DSL and Dial will also soon feature an enhanced and redesigned SBC Yahoo! Messenger, offering Avatars, graphical characters that can be customized to represent people, and Audibles, expressive, verbal animations.
Avatars convey moods and react through expressions, and can be personalized with clothing and accessories to further enhance users' self-expression. Users can choose to represent themselves by creating an Avatar or select any picture as their display image. If they choose to use a picture, they can select a picture from a personal file or they can select from a gallery of pictures available from Yahoo!. Users can also send Audibles directly from the instant messaging application, to flirt, taunt, say hello or express attitude.
Other features of the new SBC Yahoo! Messenger include pre-programmed or customized radio stations available directly in the instant messaging application, the ability to play two-person games directly in the instant messaging window and new search shortcuts that make sharing results with friends easier than ever.
The new stealth mode feature provides an easy, efficient and fun way for people to manage relationships and communicate in real time.
Compelling Price Offers
Already the nation's leading provider of DSL with nearly 4 million customers, SBC companies continue to make broadband available at affordable prices:
-- New customers signing up through June 30 can get the
lightning-fast SBC Yahoo! DSL Pro, with download speeds of
1.5 - 3.0 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 384 kbps, for as low
as $36.99 a month when purchased online, as part of an SBC