E-mail ID?: Users can see who's messaging

Telcos are lining up for a new device that integrates caller ID with voice mail and e-mail, and alerts consumers to new e-mail messages without them going online.

Devised by Notify Technology, the eView 100 is an enhanced caller ID unit that allows users to see the name and subject of 10 e-mail messages from up to five accounts. Users also are informed of attachments and told which of their accounts has the message.

GTE launched a pilot of the service last week, which has been dubbed Visual Got Mail, in Tampa. CenturyTel and BellSouth are planning trials for early next year.

Once they order eView 100, customers are directed to a Web site where they enter their e-mail addresses and passwords, said Maurice Hamoy, vice president of marketing for Notify. The information is integrated into a server, which calls a centralized server that recognizes customers' names and checks their in-boxes for messages. The automated process can be done while the user is offline, he said. Users can program the device to check for new messages four times a day.

"Bundling is a big item for [telcos], and e-mail is the next natural item to bundle," said Paul DePond, president and founder of Notify.

Visual Got Mail allows customers "to come home and check one device to see who's called them and e-mailed them so they can determine how to manage their lives," said Bill Keen, director of Internet services for BellSouth Consumer Services.

BellSouth still is ironing out details of its trial but plans a service launch for the first quarter of 2000.