MSN, the UK"s most popular website, has introduced its first paid-for service, charging Hotmail users for extra storage space on their accounts.
The Microsoft-owned site will charge Hotmail account users £20 a year for the facility, which allows them to store around 500 emails. Subscribers will also be able to store up to around 300 digital photos online using the MSN Communities service. If users who exceed the new 2Mb limit, the equivalent of around 100 emails, refuse to pay the fee they will face having emails deleted from their account.
However, Microsoft is keen to stress that the basic service will remain free.
- "While the MSN Hotmail remains free for 7 million people in this country, we have introduced a second tier to the service for people who have been asking for greater storage capacity on email and web information," said Geoff Sutton, the director of MSN.co.uk.