Web hosting company Intermedia.NET has enhanced the mailbox size of its entry-level Exchange hosting plan by 250% -- from 200 MB up to 500 MB per mailbox. The price will remain the same at $9.95. This increase in storage size follows Intermedia.NET’s groundbreaking introduction of 1 GB mailbox plans earlier this year, the first enterprise Microsoft Exchange host to do so.

While multi-gigabyte ‘freemail’ offerings from Google and Hotmail have shifted the expectations of end users, business email has often not kept pace with consumer email. Intermedia.NET has narrowed the gap between enterprise-grade business email using Microsoft Exchange and these free offers, where some hosted Exchange providers offer as little as 100 MB per mailbox.

"Most small businesses can’t afford to spend time dealing with IT annoyances like a mailbox exceeding its size limit," said Serguei Sofinski, CEO of Intermedia.NET. "Our new 500 MB plan eliminates this common business problem and lets small businesses enjoy professional email with BlackBerry and Treo access, and no limitations."

Small businesses can now sign up for a 30-day trial of Intermedia.NET’s Exchange hosting service to determine if it is right for them. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on upfront costs for running an unreliable in-house server, small businesses can let Intermedia.NET do the work for them, including updates, upgrades and 24x7 support from Intermedia.NET’s Microsoft Gold Certified Staff.

Even with the increase in storage, Intermedia.NET’s Small Business 3-Plan will continue to cost businesses just $9.95 per mailbox and provide customers with Microsoft Exchange 2003, the world’s most popular business messaging platform.

The Exchange 2003 environment allows for advanced messaging, employee access to company address books and contact managers, public folders and file sharing, company calendar for group scheduling, task assignment and management, and Outlook Web access. Intermedia.NET also supports wireless messaging through BlackBerry, Good Mobile Messaging and Microsoft ActiveSync.

Intermedia.NET (www.intermedia.net) offers a wide variety of Exchange hosting and Web hosting plans, from the smallest businesses with three users and upwards, to substantial mid-sized organizations. Intermedia.NET hosted Exchange plans start at $9.95 per month for each user.