4 ms·

Australia’s internet providers are ditching email, to older customer's disgust

4 points by clouddrover 3y ago

ggm 3y ago
Which is why over 25 years ago I started paying for pobox.com and have never ever used an ISP backed email in anger, nor recommended one to anyone I help. Ever. Don't depend on freemium from your ISP. I had a lot of respect for iinet and internode, but when they sold to TPG the writing was on the wall. It's been on countdown timer for years now.
- clouddrover 3y ago
  > Don't depend on freemium from your ISP. It isn't freemium. They were paying for that set of services. And now these ISPs will charge the same money for fewer services.
  - ggm 3y ago
    They never paid directly for the email service discretely against use of the ISPs bundled services which the T&C always said could change. So, you could not e.g. pay optus for a continuing optusnet.com.au email without an associated service of some kind in optus. And, none of those services required you to use the email: it was an adjunct. I'm sticking to freemium.
    - clouddrover 3y ago
      No, you're sticking to being wrong. It's not even what freemium means.
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
My ISP had deprecated email and other cloud services long ago. They used to offer an entire suite. ISP email addresses were once the de facto way to have a stable, legitimate, and respectable address that wasn't "freemail". Long ago, of course, everyone just used their employer's or school address for everything. When I found out about the deprecation, I was pissed, and I moved every single thing away from the three boxes I'd created. This was a prudent move also, because email addresses evaporate immediately upon termination of service, and cannot be retained a la carte in any circumstance. As an apartment dweller, I could not guarantee the perpetual stability of said ISP service. (My previous provider, who supported my 56k modem dialup through mid-2008, fully supported a la carte email for as long as I wanted, and helped me make a very smooth transition.)

4 points by clouddrover 3y ago

ggm 3y ago

Which is why over 25 years ago I started paying for pobox.com and have never ever used an ISP backed email in anger, nor recommended one to anyone I help. Ever. Don't depend on freemium from your ISP. I had a lot of respect for iinet and internode, but when they sold to TPG the writing was on the wall. It's been on countdown timer for years now.

clouddrover 3y ago
> Don't depend on freemium from your ISP. It isn't freemium. They were paying for that set of services. And now these ISPs will charge the same money for fewer services.
- ggm 3y ago
  They never paid directly for the email service discretely against use of the ISPs bundled services which the T&C always said could change. So, you could not e.g. pay optus for a continuing optusnet.com.au email without an associated service of some kind in optus. And, none of those services required you to use the email: it was an adjunct. I'm sticking to freemium.
  - clouddrover 3y ago
    No, you're sticking to being wrong. It's not even what freemium means.

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago

My ISP had deprecated email and other cloud services long ago. They used to offer an entire suite. ISP email addresses were once the de facto way to have a stable, legitimate, and respectable address that wasn't "freemail". Long ago, of course, everyone just used their employer's or school address for everything. When I found out about the deprecation, I was pissed, and I moved every single thing away from the three boxes I'd created. This was a prudent move also, because email addresses evaporate immediately upon termination of service, and cannot be retained a la carte in any circumstance. As an apartment dweller, I could not guarantee the perpetual stability of said ISP service. (My previous provider, who supported my 56k modem dialup through mid-2008, fully supported a la carte email for as long as I wanted, and helped me make a very smooth transition.)