Anyone remember Microlink?

[brianmartin_2001]

Been browsing through some old Micro User mags from 85/86 and saw some 2 page ad spreads
for Microlink " Your personal passport to the world of communciations with Telecom Gold".
I had already been barred from Prestel by this point due to a couple of heart attack phone bills
my poor mother opened.

Microlink looks to have been an enlargement of the features offered by Telecom Gold (BT's email service).
It provided access to a worldwide Mailbox (through Dialcom), Telex, Telemessaging, Telesoftware and
I think a multi user Bulletin Board. Monthly subscription charge was about £3 and the call cost was only a local
charge. All the services I mentioned had specific charges for them also that could clearly mount up the cost going by the info in the ad.

Microlink looks to have offered some things i.e (International Comms) that Prestel couldn't really.
Would be interested to know why it didn't take off. My guess is people just weren't yet that ready
at the time to achieve such a large reach modem wise and were still learning how to get to grips
with their micros and downloading games. The ad was obviously pitched at home users when its' function
appeared to really cater for business.

Did anyone here use Microlink , would be keen to know what it was like?

[scruss]

I had a journalist account, as I was writing for Database Publications at the time.

It was ... not great. I remember its main flaw was it would log you off completely if it ever saw a & from your terminal. So if you were sending copy you had to be very sure that there was no ampersands anywhere. But when it worked, it was magic to stream copy (even at 300 baud) the night before the deadline rather than mailing it a week before.

I also remember they introduced a Microlink to internet email gateway, and after sending a couple of small emails I got a paper bill in the high two digits category. Seems each email was charged at 5-10 quid.

I remember writing weather map decoding software for Microlink for the Amiga, but they never used it (or paid me for it). They ended up going with a much bigger program written in AMOS, as AMOS was a Database product. Sigh.

[brianmartin_2001]

very interesting Scruss ..

So my hunch on the costs being a bit hidden and prohibitive probably
weren't too wide of the mark ?