Email address charges branded 'daylight robbery'

Neil_Jones

The provision of ISP email address is a legacy offering from the days where it was far more convenient to have everything from one provider as an all-in-one deal, as you used to have to pay for the internet, for the call to the internet, to get set up, to scratch your nose, etc, and you couldn't always get your email from outside that connection, so they basically had you.  "Use us for email or don't use us at all".

When Hotmail came along and broke the mould by providing free email that wasn't provider dependent, that was when things started to change.  Hotmail was commercially launched July 4, 1996, symbolizing "freedom" from ISP-based email and the ability to access a user's inbox from anywhere in the world.

Petrolhead1

Are ‘......@talk21.com’ email accounts affected by this new charge from BT? These are a very old email address type that BT offered very early on when they used Yahoo to provide email services. We have steadfastly refused to switch to any newer versions that we have been offered that include ‘bt’ somewhere in the address.

Pete99

I would have thought that it is a good marketing strategy to allow people to keep using their email accounts after leaving because it's an incentive for them to come back, it's also pretty cheap advertising because the company name appears in the email adresses, I doubt that there's much additional costs involved in operating existing email accounts for people who have left anyway because the money's already been spent on the equipment.

bradders1983

Pete99 said:

I would have thought that it is a good marketing strategy to allow people to keep using their email accounts after leaving because it's an incentive for them to come back, it's also pretty cheap advertising because the company name appears in the email adresses, I doubt that there's much additional costs involved in operating existing email accounts for people who have left anyway because the money's already been spent on the equipment.

Yes I am sure Freeserve really need the advertising at the moment.