Tag: Email Communication Services

Microsoft has announced that it will retire most Azure Communication Services offerings on September 30, 2028. Among the affected services is Email Communication Services (ECS), leaving Microsoft without a dedicated cloud service for high-volume external email. Exchange Online’s High Volume Email (HVE) service currently lacks that capability, but Microsoft could choose to fill the gap with a new pay-as-you-go HVE offering aimed at bulk email workloads.

Almost two years after it first previewed, Microsoft is making the High-Volume Email (HVE) solution generally available in March 2026. HVE runs on a pay-as-you-go basis, but Microsoft won’t start charging tenants for sending email until May 2026. Two months should be enough for people to decide if they want to use HVE for internal communications as it has no ability to send external email.