There are many alternatives to direct long distance calling. Some
offers better quality data transfers and lower costs.
The regional packet data services used to be a popular option.
In Scandinavia, the offerings of the local PTTs are called Datapak.
Similar services are offered in most countries, often by a national
telephone monopoly.
Competitively priced alternatives are appearing in many
countries as national telecom monopolies are brought to an end. For
example, Infonet, TRI-P, and i-Com compete successfully with former
monopolies for transport of data to and from North America.
The Internet is a global network serving millions of mailboxes.
It provides very cost-efficient mail exchange with private and
public networks throughout the world.
IXI is a packet data network operated by European Research
centers. DASnet offers transport of mail between mail systems that
have no direct connection with each others. (More about this in