Microsoft plans to kick off the beta test next week its MSN 9 Internet service — now officially christened MSN Premium.

The final version of the service won't be out until "winter," however. Various Windows enthusiast sites have reported that Microsoft has told beta-tester candidates that the beta period is slated to run through January 2004, making a first or second quarter 2004 release date seem likely.

In the interim, Microsoft is planning to release a stripped-down version of its MSN service, dubbed MSN Plus, to testers by the end of this calendar year, according to company officials. Microsoft is characterizing MSN Plus as a "subset" of MSN Premium that is targeted at "the individual broadband enthusiast, instead of the multi-person household" who does not require parental controls, multiple e-mail accounts, productivity applications and Outlook integration.

Microsoft is planning to charge $9.95 a month for Premium, and some lesser, as-yet-unannounced fee for Plus. This amount will be on top of what users will pay their communications providers for their DSL, cable-modem, dial-up or other Internet access method.

Like AOL Time Warner has done with its rival Internet service, MSN plans to target its next release squarely at broadband users. AOL began delivering its AOL 9 service, officially named AOL 9.0 Optimized, earlier in August.

Microsoft has been hinting for months at the feature set for MSN 9. At Microsoft's Financial Analyst Day, Redmond executives showed off the Outlook Connector for MSN feature that will provide integration between Outlook 2003 and MSN services, such as scheduling, contact management and photo-sharing.

See "Microsoft Preps MSN 9"

Read More About the Outlook Connector Here

As expected, MSN Premium will include photo- and calendar-sharing services; more parental control features; and a pop-up guard to allow users to control how they receive ads. Microsoft also plans to provide extra storage (25 MB worth) and support for up to 10 e-mail accounts to MSN Premium subscribers.

While Microsoft is developing both the Plus and Premium services with broadband users in mind, the company says that "many" of the new features in the next release will also will be available to existing MSN dial-up users.