Google Lands Huge School E-Mail Deal

The New South Wales Department of Education says it has yanked what it calls one of the world's largest e-mail accounts from Microsoft and handed it to Google.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the system will serve 1.3 million users and be in place by the end of the year.

The school system is ditching a five-year $30 million contract with Microsoft partner Unisys in favor of a $9.5 million, three-year contract with the Google partner SMS Management and Technology. Though the e-mail accounts will be free for users, the contract pays SMS Management and Technology to provide security and integrate the system with the school system's existing portal.

Student Gmail accounts will have no advertising and include tough filtering and security features. They will be accessible at home, with a memory boost to 6 gigabytes, up from 35 megabytes.