23 January 2003 Snooping bosses force employees to email from home Employees are being forced to email and surf the Internet from home as more and more bosses crack down on personal email/Internet usage at work. A survey conducted by Amstrad em@ilerplus, the home telephone with email and Internet access, reveals that 26% of people with email at home, installed it because their bosses were monitoring, and even snooping through, their emails at work. As many as 28% claim they know their bosses read their emails and 39% say they would get a serious warning if they got caught surfing the Internet outside their lunch hour. The survey shows that despite disapproval from bosses, people still spend on average 2.3 hours a day sending personal emails and surfing the Internet at work. Amstrad conducted this survey following a huge increase in sales of its em@ilerplus in the last month. Over 25,000 people have bought the em@ilerplus in January alone and Amstrad questioned their reasons for wanting email at home. Simon Sugar, Commercial Director for Amstrad said: “Bosses are beginning to realize how much time their employees are spending on personal emails and are really cracking down. Communicating by email is now a key part of our social lives, so if people are unable to email at work, then emailing at home is the only solution – people won’t give up their emails easily, they rely on them far too much.” The Amstrad em@ilerplus has now halved its price to £49.99, making it the cheapest (and easiest) way to get email and Internet access at home. The Amstrad em@ilerplus is the ultimate home telephone with pay-as-you-go email facility and Internet access. This year, customers will be able to benefit from even more services on the em@ilerplus with upgraded Internet access and the ability to send and receive SMS text messages. ENDS For further information, samples or photography, contact Gavin Lewis at Frank PR, tel. 020 7693 6999 Notes to editors: More information on the em@ilerplus available from www.amstrad.com One session on the e-m@ilerplus costs 12 pence (plus local call rate per minute). A single session can be used to send multiple emails, plus collect waiting emails at the same time. Electronic greeting cards can be sent individually at a cost of 25p per card. SMS text messages can be sent individually at a cost of 50p. Normal email session rate applies when connecting to ‘amsurf’. The cost of games can be viewed on screen prior to downloading and is dependent on length of use. The cost of downloadable ringtones for the emailerplus can also be viewed on screen prior to downloads. The e-m@ilerplus is easy to set up and registration takes a matter of minutes. There is no joining fee or subscription, and users simply pay for the time spent online, or for each session. All charges are collected and shown via the users normal telecom providers bill. The em@ilerplus uses Microsoft Mobile Explorer, which is specifically designed to display low graphic content sites. Other websites may also be viewed, but due to their complexity, may offer limited access. The e-m@ilerplus has a sleek new look in contemporary and stylish silver and blue, while retaining all the features that made the original e-m@iler so successful, including: • Send and receive multiple emails worldwide in one session • Up to 8 secure email addresses - one for all the family • Internet access to a world of on-line pages via “amsurf” • Compose and send SMS text messages to mobile phones • Send electronic greetings cards from the large built in library • Personalise your phone from a wide selection of downloadable ring tones • Digital answering machine • Full duplex hands free speakerphone • 700 name address book with unique hotlink keys to home, office, mobile plus one touch ‘template create’ to send SMS and e-mail • Compose and send text fax messages to fax machines Go to News Headlines