BigPond has gone all Microsoft with more storage, MS Office apps and multimedia sharing than you can shake a stick at.
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BigPond email users can brace themselves for a faster and improved email service called BigPond with Windows Live, thanks to a new deal Telstra has cut with Microsoft, announced today.
The new bigger BigPond service will also offer Microsoft Hotmail, unlimited SkyDrive (to share photos, docs) and Windows Live to its 4.2 million mailboxes, more storage capabilities, MS Office apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
BigPond with Windows Live will also allow users the ability to create, edit and share photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker.
Windows Live Messenger, the instant messaging service service is also included as part of the revamped Bigpond service, meaning it will now rival Gmail’s similar tool.
However, to use the new service you’ll need to click out of your existing Google Chrome of Firefox browser and use Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8 version.
And users wont have having to change their email address or contacts either, J-B Rousselot, Telstra’s Director of Media, Applications and User Experience, confirmed.
New BigPond email customers will receive the Windows Live service straight off while existing customers will be contacted “over the course of the year “with instructions on how to being the migration process, he said.
Telstra have also created a ‘self help’ website including “how to” videos, Q&A’s and updates on progress of the changeover.
But this new service is so much more than just email, says Kevin Grobler, Microsoft Australia.
“The suite of Windows Live products also includes; enhanced security features, and virtually unlimited storage of photos and documents in the cloud with SkyDrive,” he said.
This latest deal follows the formation of a strategic alliance between Telstra and Microsoft in late 2008.