FASmail - General Information

Features | Eligibility | Pricing | Ordering | Naming Conventions | Support | Roles and Responsibilities


Features

FASmail (Faculty & Staff Email) is an enterprise email service for faculty, staff and student employees of the University of British Columbia.

Features of the service include:

  • 5GB mailbox and calendar.
  • Safe and secure mail storage using the UBC Storage Grid.
  • A comprehensive list of UBC faculty and staff using FASmail in one address book.
  • The ability to look up availability of meeting rooms, equipment and others using FASmail.
  • The ability to schedule meetings based on availability and accept or decline meeting requests.
  • The option to delegate mailbox and/or calendar access to other FASmail users.
  • Virus protection and spam prevention.
  • A webmail interface (Outlook Web App) that provides an Outlook-like experience using a wide variety of web browsers.
  • Support for hosted departmental email domains.

FASmail is accessible via a webmail client (Outlook Web App) or through any standards-based desktop email application that supports the following protocols: Outlook Anywhere, Exchange Web Services, Secure POP, Secure IMAP, Secure SMTP, MAPI and ActiveSync. Note: Some functionality may be lost if not supported by that email client and protocol (e.g. Calendaring.)

FASmail can host email addresses in the @ubc.ca domain (that meet the naming restrictions established for that domain – e.g. firstname.lastname@ubc.ca) or any email address in a subdomain of ubc.ca (e.g. user@department.ubc.ca) provided that the domain is hosted by the FASmail service and all users of the domain have mailboxes on FASmail.

Additional features are available, for a fee:

  • Additional mailbox space, beyond the allocation of 5GB.
  • Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) activation.
  • Mailboxes for individuals who are not eligible for a FASmail mailbox.

Features of the Blackberry (BES) service include:

  • Full synching of email, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes on a Blackberry device with a BES carrier plan.
  • Full encryption for all messages sent from the Blackberry device and message received from the BES server.
  • Account management and technical support provided by the IT Service Centre.

There is a one-time Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) activation licensing fee. For current rates, please refer to the pricing list below. Note: The Blackberry (BES) service is not available for Blackberry 10 and above devices. These devices support ActiveSync as an alternative.

FASmail is funded by the University of British Columbia. Most UBC Faculty, Staff and Student employees are eligible for a funded mailbox. Further details on eligibility are included below.


Eligibility

The FASmail service is available to all campus units, departments and individuals. However, only some mailboxes are funded by UBC. Departments are currently being migrated on a department-by-department basis. Please see the Migration pages on this site for more information.

  • Most UBC Faculty, Staff and Student Employees with an active UBC Employee ID are eligible for a UBC funded 5GB mailbox. ** See below for details.
  • Generic (Shared Departmental) Mailboxes (1GB) - e.g. helpdesk@dept.ubc.ca, electrician@dept.ubc.ca, etc…
  • Resource Mailboxes (200MB) - e.g. bookable meeting rooms and equipment

**Please Note: The eligibility listed below is still under review and is subject to change.

Legend:

  • Eligible: These users are eligible for a 5GB mailbox funded by UBC.
  • Optional: These users are not eligible for a funded mailbox but a department can choose to fund these mailboxes.
  • Ineligible: These users are not eligible for the FASmail service.
Role & Status Current Eligibility
Adjunct Professor Eligible
Affiliate Professor (incl Affiliate Associate, Asst and Instructor) Eligible
Clinical Appointments Eligible
Dean (includes asst., acting and Vice Deans) Eligible
Emeriti* Eligible
Fellow (Senior, Research, Teaching) Eligible
Head (includes Acting) Eligible
Honorary Appointments Eligible
Lecturer Eligible
Noted Scholar Eligible
Principal (includes acting and Associate) Eligible
Professor (Partner) (includes Asst. and Assoc. Profs) Eligible
Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Instructor Eligible
Program Director Eligible
Research Associates Eligible
Sessional Lecturer Eligible
Visiting Appointments Eligible
Ineligible/Optional Users Requiring Access to Generic Mailboxes* Eligible
Select UBC Associations (Faculty Association, Alumni Association, etc...)* Eligible
Staff Finders Employees without a UBC employee number* Eligible
Director (includes Acting) Eligible
Librarian (General, Admin) Eligible
Staff Eligible
Medical Resident* Eligible
UBC Graduate Student (not employees)* Eligible
Student Employees (incl Teaching Assistants) Eligible
Contractor* Optional
Other (e.g. Prof's spouses)* Optional
UBC Unions (CUPE)* Optional
Volunteer (that doesn't require access to a Generic Mailbox)* Optional
Continuing Education Student* Optional
Extended Learning Student* Optional
UBC Undergrad Student (not employees)* Optional
External Organizations/Businesses (Commercial/Affiliates) Ineligible
Groups that exist on campus but are not officially tied to UBC Ineligible

* Requires formal approval/validation.

Role & Status Current Eligibility
Staff (in HRMS)  
Candidate (hired but waiting for paperwork) Optional
Active, Unpaid Leave, Paid Leave Eligible
Retired with pay, Retired Optional
Suspended, Terminated, EULA/ToS Violations Ineligible
Faculty (in HRMS)  
Candidate (hired but waiting for paperwork) Optional
Active, Unpaid Leave, Paid Leave Eligible
Emeriti Eligible
Retired with pay, Retired Optional
Suspended, Terminated, EULA/ToS Violations Ineligible
Student Employees (in HRMS)  
Candidate (hired but waiting for paperwork) Optional
Active, Unpaid Leave, Paid Leave Eligible
Suspended, Terminated, EULA/ToS Violations Ineligible
Exceptions (Grad Students, Medical Residents, UBC Assoc's)  
Active Eligible
Inactive Ineligible
Optionals (Department funded mailboxes)  
Active Optional
Inactive Optional

Pricing

A departmental contact is required for billing purposes. All purchases will require a UBC Journal Voucher/Speedchart.
**Please Note: Annual billing is currently not in effect. Departments will be notified ahead of time when recurring billing is expected to be rolled out. Pricing is still under review and is subject to change.

Mailboxes Not Funded by UBC

  • $12/mailbox per fiscal year (billed annually, not up-front)**

Additional Mailbox Space

  • $1.50/GB per fiscal year with a minimum purchase of 100GB for the department (billed annually, not up-front)**
  • Mailbox quota is purchased by the requesting department for all of their users to share.

Blackberry Enterprise Server Activations

  • $100 one-time fee (billed up-front)

Mailbox Restores

  • Each user is eligible for two free restores per fiscal year
  • Additional restores will cost $75 per restore (billed up-front)

  


Ordering

Departments are currently being migrated on a department-by-department basis. Please see the Migration pages on this site for more information. If your department has already been on-boarded, please contact your departmental IT representative.


Naming Conventions

Standards are required to ensure that everyone is using the FASmail system is using a common convention. It makes searching the Global Address List more straight-forward and intuitive. Click on the link below to review the FASmail Naming Conventions:


Support

For full email and calendaring functionality, Exchange requires Outlook (PC/Mac), Entourage (Mac) or the Outlook Web App. Other email applications can be used but will not offer a full set of services designed to take full advantage of the service.

UBC IT will provide access to the following email protocols:

  • Autodiscovery
  • Outlook Anywhere (a.k.a. RPC over https)
  • MAPI
  • Secure IMAP
  • Secure POP
  • Secure SMTP
  • Exchange Web Services
  • ActiveSync

Although the above protocols are available and can be used, UBC Information Technology can only provide support for the Outlook Web App client. Email Client support for applications such as Outlook and Entourage are handled by departmental desktop support personnel.

The following table includes a list of email clients and the service that you can expect from each.

E-mail Client Limited Service (Email only) Full Service (Email, Calendar & Contacts)
Outlook 2010/2007  

X

Outlook 2011 (Mac)  

X

Entourage 2008 w/ Web Services  

X
(Free Web Services component required)

Entourage 2008 w/o Web Services
(POP/IMAP only)

X

 
Mac Mail 4.x  

X
(Snow Leopard OS required
but access to public folders are not supported)

Outlook Web Access  

X

Thunderbird 3.x and above

X


Windows Mail/Outlook Express

X


Eudora 7.1

X

 
Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (iOS 5.x)  

X
(Notes and Availability Lookups are not available)

Blackberry  

X
(BES account required)

 


Roles and Responsibilities

Here are the roles and responsibilities of FASmail related contacts for each department.

Role Responsibilities
Business Contact(s) Administrative person(s) within a department that have the authority to make business decisions that affect the entire department.
Authorized Departmental FASmail Contact(s) Administrative person(s) within a department that can approve FASmail activities that involve financial, access, and account change implications.
FASmail EDGE Administrator Contact(s) Technical person(s) within a department that have access and are trained to use the FASmail EDGE Administrator Tool.
Tech Contact(s) Technical person(s) within a department that provide support to end-users within the department.
Billing Contact(s) Administrative person(s) within a department that handle the financial matters of the department.