End of the era of... free email?

[Technical Ben]

Just seen that even O2 have dropped their email service. Is it the end of the world and dog providing "free" email? I can understand getting it free from ISPS, not expecting that to be dropped soon. But it's rather interesting that a telephone company, that also provides internet is dropping such a service.

Cutting costs or a real drop in usage?

[Simon]

The announcement email was amusingly terse - along the lines of, "We gave you a free email address, but you've been using Google, Hotmail and Yahoo! instead, so we're closing it.  So there."

[Niall]

The announcement email was amusingly terse - along the lines of, "We gave you a free email address, but you've been using Google, Hotmail and Yahoo! instead, so we're closing it.  So there."

That would be the best closure email ever

[mervl]

  Anything to do with regulation, now I think data has to be kept for one, or is it two, years? I loose track now that rules and proposed rules (whether by the multiple law-making agencies we now suffer or or by overt or covert arm-twisting) appear like ghouls in the night. Running anything over the internet seems like driving a stagecoach along an eighteenth century highway.

[Simon]

This is what it actually said:

Your o2.co.uk email is closing

You know your o2.co.uk email account? We're sorry to tell you we're shutting it down.

Why?

We used to give all our customers a free o2.co.uk email account. Some people used it, but lots didn't - preferring to use other email services like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo!, instead. So, from 1 November 2013, all o2.co.uk email accounts will be closed. You won't be able to send or receive email using [username]@o2.co.uk after this date.

They then went on to say how to transfer contacts, etc, and finished with:

We'll be in touch again before 1 November, just to remind you of what's happening.

Until then, we hope this won't cause too much inconvenience.

All the best

The O2 Team

[Niall]

I really hate the stupid date setting companies use now, it's so lazy. "1 November", could easily be seen by morons everywhere as "one November" and leave them wondering which November

What happened to "the 1st of November, 2013"? You know, using actual English to construct a sentence!

[Simon]

It's Americanisms creeping in.  Burglarized is another one. 

[Gary]

O2 are really going down hill, then again I did hardly ever use my O2 email anyway.

[pctech]

I guess they need to clear some server racks and vacate some data centre space that might be costing them money as how can you compete with the likes of Google and MS with unlimited storage and who are sinking billions into new data centre projects to house servers and storage as what most end users don't realise is that the storage arrays to accommodate all that content take up a lot of physical space (and power)

[Gary]

I'm sure Telefonica/O2 can afford it, its not like they are putting much effort into upgrading the network, and they didn't buy much in the way of 4G capacity either. 

[pctech]

Yep they can but they prob want to free up some space.

[Broadback]

My step daughter took a job with them. Within a month she realised her mistake. She is now leaving and says that a lot of the staff are on the edge of a nervous breakdown. They expect far to much from their employees.

[Technical Ben]

Signs of a company in trouble really. They tend to tighten the staff, thinking it boosts performance/profits/returns. When really it just helps fuel the crash (see banks etc for an example).

[pctech]

I'm sure BT will be waiting to pick up the network again for a knock down price.