email to India

[Vickie.Banks]

Status: RO

When I was in India last summer I consulted with a private group who wanted to
direct email to the U.S.  We tried to get access to one of the BITNET or UUCP
sites, but found it very difficult.  They wanted you to be an educational
institution and pay a high yearly fee for the privilege.  Essentially they
didn't want to deal with individuals who where not on their staff at all.
What finally worked was getting a private MCI Mail account (available
throughout India). With that one had to get a packet switching account from
the PTT and license the modem, but compared with trying to become an
educational institution and pay fees, it was workable.  MCI Mail gateways to
the Internet, so it's easily reachable to and from BITNET.  MCI Mail customers
only pay for sending (not receiving) mail, so charges weren't bad except for
the packet switching, which is probably unavoidable in some form or another
anyhow. Compuserve also works well from India, though because of connect time
charges, it tendsto be a bit more expensive than MCI Mail.  Anyhow perhaps
this will be helpful