AT&T has introduced a new product which facilitates the linking of electronic mail services. Designated AT&T Mail Gateway 400 because it is built on the CCITT X.400 standard, the product is now available to AT&T Mail subscribers who wish to exchange electronic messages with users served by Telecom, Canada's Envoy 100 service. In Canada, the gateway will be known as the Envoy Message Handling System. AT&T is working with several other electronic mail suppliers to link systems.
Dialcom, a major competitor in the electronic mail market and the supplier of the ALANET service, claims that its parent company, British Telecom, has been offering 400 message handling service in Great Britain for some time. The service is called PLC Gold 400. Dialcom will offer X.400 in the United States in the near future.
More than 2,000 U.S. libraries are currently using electronic mail on at least four incompatible systems. The implementation of X.400 by each of the suppliers would link all of these libraries with electronic mail.
