Excite Inc., in conjunction with
e-mail partner WhoWhere?, announced
plans today to provide every schoolchild in Britain with a free e-mail
address.
Part of the UK government’s NetYear initiative, which aims to provide
Internet connectivity to every pupil in the United Kingdom by the end of
1998, Excite reports that as many as 10 million students are expected to
get lifelong e-mail accounts through ExcitePost.
The ExcitePost private e-mail service aims to protect students’ privacy by
ensuring that student-aged users only receive mail from people to whom
they’ve sent messages, or from those in their address book. Excite said the
service also incorporates important spam blocking technology.
According to Excite, UK NetYear expects an estimated 5 million school
children, teachers, and schools to participate in the first 6 months to
receive Internet access and Web-based e-mail accounts at a rate of just
under one million a month.
Excite reports it will work with UK NetYear to create a signup
registration process for students and teachers via Excite UK.
The company says it plans to work with the U.S. government in an effort to
provide U.S. schoolchildren with similar Web-based e-mail access.