Warning to ex-customers of major broadband provider over £50 fee to see emails
Those who refuse to pay risk losing data
A major UK broadband provider will soon by turning off their free email services to thousands of former customers in the coming months. Instead, if these email users want to still access their email address, they will need to pay an annual fee.
TalkTalk is currently moving some of its service to its email partner Open-Xchange, which unfortunately means the company will no longer be able to provide former broadband customers with free access to their emails.
Those impacted who still wish to use their email address are being asked to pay an annual fee of £50, or split it down to £5 per month. However, if users do not use their account, it is set to be deleted on October 31.
For some former users this is not a surprising change, as TalkTalk has already had this fee in place in order to help cover the costs of the service. However, some lucky customers were still able to access their email for free despite leaving the provider.
It should be noted that current broadband customers are not impacted by this change and will still be able to access their email address for free.
TalkTalk explains: "We've continued to provide your TalkTalk email service free of charge for some time. However, as you're no longer a TalkTalk broadband customer, we're unfortunately unable to continue offering it at no cost.
"Providing a high–quality email service requires ongoing investments in infrastructure, security, and innovation."
Former TalkTalk customers who have one of the following email address will be impacted by the change:
@talktalk.net
@lineone.net
@tiscali.co.uk
@tinyworld.co.uk
@pipex.com
TalkTalk has contacted former customers to make them aware of the impending changes, along with the options available to them moving forward.
A spokesperson from TalkTalk told the Daily Record: "None of our current broadband customers are being charged for email. For those who no longer take broadband from us, we are offering the opportunity to keep their email address and move to a new email service run by our specialist partner.
"We have contacted all impacted former customers to set out several options, and those who do not wish to pay for the new service are free to download and transfer their data to another email provider."
Former customers will already be seeing changes to their email, as TalkTalk implemented the first drop in the service last month.
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From July 28, users who have not subscribed to the annual fee can still access emails, however they are now unable to send any emails to others.
The next stage is set to take place on September 8, which will see users no longer being able to access their emails. They will instead be directed to a subscription page.
For those who do not want to continue with the TalkTalk email, they can download all of their data and transfer it to another provider. However, this needs to be done by September 8.
The ultimate deadline for the former customers is October 31. On this date, if an email address holder hasn't subscribed, their account along with all its associated data will be permanently closed.
From this date, old customers will not be able to recover any of the deleted data or subscribe to the annual fee.
TalkTalk has warned: "This action is irreversible, so it’s important to act before this deadline."