ISP Email Portability
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 11/20/2015 1:00:00 AM
Your Internet Service Provider Shouldn't Own Your Identity.
Every major ISP offers a free email account to its subscribers. For example, if you get your Internet from Comcast, you're given an address @comcast.net. Sounds simple enough... or is it?
As time goes by, that email address becomes an important part of your identity. It's the address you give to family and friends who want to write you or send you photos. It's also the address you use whenever you register for things like shopping sites, bank accounts, credit cards, online bill pay, and countless other services.
In a nutshell, that email account IS your online identity. If you lose it, you've got a problem.
That's exactly what happens when some people move from one ISP to another. Some ISPs actually cut off your old email account when you close your account. When that happens, it's often difficult transitioning to the new address because in some cases, you need to confirm the change by clicking on a confirmation email that is sent to the old address.
This is why I tell people to ignore the email address their ISP gives them, and always use a generic email service such as Gmail, HotMail, or Yahoo as their primary email address. This means they can change ISPs as often as they want and not have to change their email address.
Thankfully, some providers like AOL allow you to keep your old email address, but a lot of local providers don't allow you to keep your old email address. If nothing else, they should give former customers permanent access to log in and read their old mail, and create a forwarder to insure new mail gets routed to their new email address.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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