Storage Increase Not Quite There Yet for Windows Live Hotmail
Some beta users of Windows Live Hotmail may think their e-mail storage has doubled, but Microsoft said on Wednesday the change may not immediately be the case.
IDG News Service (London Bureau) — Some of Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail service beta testers are getting an increase in storage, but the extra capacity isn't being introduced as smoothly as some of them might hope. The users will see from their storage meter that they now have 4GB of storage, up from 2GB before. But the extra storage might not actually have been assigned to their accounts yet, according to a company blog posting.
"This seems like putting the cart before the horse," the posting says. "The reason for this is that the storage upgrade is being gradually rolled across the universe and does not immediately change every account at the same time."
The problem should resolve itself as the upgrade continues over the next two weeks, Microsoft said. The expanded storage is only for "Hotmail Plus" customers who are beta testing Windows Live Hotmail, a revamped version of the company's Web e-mail service.
Hotmail Plus customers pay US$19.95 per year for a 2GB account and extras such as the ability to send 20 MB attachments.
Microsoft's free Hotmail service offers 1 GB of storage and a 10 MB attachment limit. By comparison, Google's Gmail offers 2.6 GB of storage for free, and Yahoo's free e-mail includes 1 GB of storage.
Last month, Microsoft rolled out another feature upgrade, M10, for the Windows Live Hotmail beta, which is supposed to improve its speed and reliability.


