Keeping your email address when moving to High Speed Broadband
More than 100 people have registered for the new broadband service and these people use more than 20 different internet service providers (ISPs) and there is a much wider range of email addresses.
For email to work you need an internet connection, an email address and a mail server. For many people these will come from one ISP (e.g.: BT Internet). Other people have email addresses and mail servers provided by third party free email services such as Hotmail or Gmail; others have their own domain name as their email address with mail servers provided either by their ISP or by a third party. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the various ISPs have different policies about retaining ISP email addresses.
It is not therefore straightforward to provide definitive information that will be true in every case, however the following notes are intended to help people understand the situation.
If you have a third party email address and mail server - e.g. Hotmail / Gmail etc. there should be no impact when moving to the new service and your email will continue to function unchanged.
Likewise if you have your own domain name and use a third party mail server, again there should be no impact when moving to the new service.
If you have your own domain name and use a mail server provided by your ISP ( using your own domain name as an alias for an ISP provided email account), you will be able to retain your email address but may have to pay a small charge to continue using your old ISP's mail server, or move to a new mail server (e.g. LN Comms) which may require changing settings if you use a local mail client.
If you are using an ISP provided email address & mail server – e.g.: BT Internet, Orangehome, Sky, TalkTalk etc. the situation varies from ISP to ISP. Some will allow you to retain your email address in perpetuity free of charge, while others will make a small charge for this. Click here to read an article comparing some of the principal suppliers different policies.
If you in are category three or four, you can Google "keeping email address changing ISP" together with the name of your ISP and you will find a bunch of info - alternatively you can call your ISP and ask them about their termination policies and how to keep your email address. This last is the only definitive way to get an answer that is specific to your own particular circumstances. You will also find that the LN Comms engineers may be able to point you in the right direction as they have significant experience of transitioning customers to a new service.