On December 17 last year, Econet announced it was preparing to launch an email system for broadband subscribers. Exactly a month later, Econet Mail has gone live. Econet has announced the system is ready and broadband subscribers will be getting their login credentials via SMS.
The email system is restricted to Econet subscribers who are activated for mobile broadband. Basically, subscribers’ mobile numbers will become their usernames to produce an email address like 0772123457@econetmail.com for a subscriber whose mobile number is 0772 123 456. The web address of the mail system is http://webmail.econetmail.com.
As the service is targeted at Econet Broadband customers, the assumption is that you’l be using the Econet broadband internet service to access the Econet Mail. The intention is clearly to encourage Econet Broadband internet usage, but there’s nothing to stop you from using the Econet Mail service on an internet connection not provided by Econet.
Use of the mail system is free, but subscribers will pay their usual internet provider for access. If your internet provider is Econet (Econet Broadband) you’l still need to buy data bundles to to access your mail.
The concept is interesting, especially how it might impact communication for a lot of people who currently don’t have email addresses. Let’s call them the un-emailed for lack of a better term. It will also be interesting, if it works, if the other mobile providers will follow suit.
We imagine Zimbabwean software developers would have interesting services to build atop such a platform.
But like we opined about this last year, Econet would do good to provide some kind of incentive to make Econet Mail more attractive in comparison to webmail systems like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail. Assuming Econet Mail will not match feature rich Gmail on the usability front, an easy incentive to implement would be to make all trafic to econetmail.com free. Presumably, econemail.com traffic is local traffic anyway which doesn’t cost Econet much to move.
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22 comments
Its too cumbersome kuti 0772071073@econetmail.com. Why didnt they just say ecomail?
taura hako, it just doesnt sound well.. it feels weird .
Hey what about the login password how do we get that for our emails, does anyone have an idea?
Yes, this is the great mystery. I assume there’s some sort of registration on some website somewhere, but since http://www.econetmail.com itself is looking like an incomplete Joomla installation, we don’t know yet.
I’d assumed it was my PIN, but that was overly ambitious.
Good day
A simple email with you dataline number to support@econetmail.com will get you provisioned for the service.
Econetmail.com Team
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/business-4286-Masawara+snaps+up+internet+service+provider/business.aspx
some news for u guys to reprt on!
I dont curse the day i stumbled on this website, the blogging is gret. Kip it ^. I am having no fun with the new Herald webisite, its slower, and categories are hard to navigate without going back. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Thanks for the heads-up hey!
I think Econet should be concentrating on core service delivery (i.e. broadband connectivity and stability) rather than diversifying into a market that is already completely saturated with extremely good services. If you have any kind of internet access it’s highly likely that you already have a free email address provided by Google or Yahoo!. Admittedly the use of mobile numbers (former Ecoweb customers are forgotten as usual…) is quite neat but I don’t want everyone who has my email to also have my phone number. It’s going to be a cold-calling/SMS spam disaster.
Interesting angle the SPAM one. Sure sounds like an overlooked issue here…
Plus, email addresses will be extremely easy to guess. You basically just need to generate random 7 digit numbers and append them to the 077 and voila you have (amongst your millions of addresses) every single account on the econet.co.zw domain. Not that I’m suggesting anyone would try that of course…
On the issue of spam. We have looked at the naming convention that we have selected and yes it can be targeted in a spam attack, however the anti spam system that we are using is very powerful.
Our email spam filtering system is a continuously updated, multi-layered process that eliminates 98% of all spam with near zero false positives.
It allows for blacklisting and allows for you to mark your unwanted email as spam. The marking of email as spam helps the system protect you in the future.
Regards,
Econetmail.com Team
Ecomail z sexy rather econetmail.f n change cld b initiated
If none of ya’ll got nothing positive to say pliz keep all negativity to yourselves.thank you econet keep the good work up.
dont jus take evrythn as it comes even when u think u don have a choice. some criticisms always make others stronger.
Can i get my bank account balance through econet system?
hw can i confirm my ecomail account
i lyk this service very much thumbs up econet
CHECK OUT http://www.safrip.com
brand new site. its about connecting southern africans abroad and at home. its only just been launched. i joined a few days ago. been told there are many new features being installed… worth a look
Econetmail is a brilliant idea , I am switching it over to be my official address maybe till I get my own corporate website and instruments set up , am not just too chaffed with having the # appear as a profile name as we cant customise in any way
thank econet. now i easly get my facebook inbox without logging in
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