Are the days of BigPond Email Account Numbered?

[MARTINE]

...
Our email system is broken and Telstra Platinum keep telling Mrscove that the break is their end and a supervisor is needed to fix it. Started on Friday morning and it is very annoying. Might end up selling our Telstra shares if it continues.
It looks like the Sigma/ Chemist Warehouse merger will be approved.

@cove
I just finished updating/changing/unsubscribing from my Telstra email accounts as bigpond etc going to go the way of 3G . Its a day of my life I wont get back but now irs done

 

[cove]

Our email is still broken so I left Spartan placement go thru to the keeper.

 

[lovestotravel]

Hopefully your emails were not rejected back to the sender, as that can then mean your email address is marked as not valid and they no longer email you

 

[serfty]

@cove
I just finished updating/changing/unsubscribing from my Telstra email accounts as bigpond etc going to go the way of 3G . Its a day of my life I wont get back but now irs done

Did you come across anything official?

Research indicates this has been "going to happen" for years. No new Bigpond email accounts have been available for three years.

I have been using BigPond email accounts since the 90's. This from back in the pre-ADSL days of 9.6K modems.

@cove - in the last week SWMBO's and my BigPond email accounts stopped working for about 24 hours, but are currently functional.

 

[MARTINE]

Did you come across anything official?

Research indicates this has been "going to happen" for years. No new Bigpond email accounts have been available for three years.

I have been using BigPond email accounts since the 90's. This from back in the pre-ADSL days of 9.6K modems.

@cove - in the last week SWMBO's and my BigPond email accounts stopped working for about 24 hours, but are currently functional.

I kept losing connection using my mobile and had to use the laptop to get any bigpond emails. I was prompted when the majority of my time overseas a few months ago - there was no access. I logged into ‘my Telstra’ (to change my contact email away from bigpond). I found an article within that talking about the gradual phasing out - consider using another email address. Decided to update all my email addresses elsewhere.

 

[cove]

Ok we will need to struggle on until 31/08/2025 as that is when our consulting ends.

 

[cove]

Yes @lovestotravel we may never know.We will check our UK and US interests over the next month as SIL is going to Los Angeles and we are going to London.
We have had calls in Australia so those things got fixed.

 

[serfty]

I found an article within that talking about the gradual phasing out - consider using another email address.

Thankyou for that.

I checked and already had an alternative non Bigpond email set up. Saw no notification.

Research indicates a push a year or so ago, but there is little further information.

Telstra did introduce a new web interface* earlier this year so maybe they have deferred such plans.

* although I generally use an SMTP desktop Client (Like Outlook)

 

[markis10]

No money running email services so I am not surprised it’s dying, albeit a slow death

 

[p--and--t]

IMHO the Bigpond email service was cough from day one. Size limits, contorted access methods etc. I resolved very early on never to use an email address tied to an ISP. It was a crude method of holding you by the short and curlies to discorouge you from changing provider.

 

[jb747]

We finished our move away from Telstra a couple of weeks ago. To be honest, I don't know why it took me so long, but their pricing for mobile was becoming ludicrous compared to some alternatives (which use the same network).

And I've just been helping a neighbour getting set up with fibre. Getting Aussiebroadband as the connection was easy and quick, but wow how painful have Telstra been in cancelling their original service. The positive is that they made it sufficiently annoying that the neighbours decided to move everything...business included.

 

[tgh]

Changing email seems almost insurmountable.. there must be thousands who need to be advised or discarded.

 

[Askance]

Changing email seems almost insurmountable.. there must be thousands who need to be advised or discarded.

Its definitely a job best done over several months. Change everything you can think of and there will still be stuff that gets missed.
I changed from Internode email to Gmail many years back, so tedious

 

[MARTINE]

Changing email seems almost insurmountable.. there must be thousands who need to be advised or discarded.

There was an upside — probably unsubscribed 40% of the emails I was getting to that address… everytime you eat in restaurant/stay in a hotel you get communications from the ‘family of brands’. Any of the ones that had annoyed me/bad service got ‘constructive feedback’ that I conveniently had ready

 

[zig]

Somehow I missed this issue until reading this thread. I don't recall any notification from Telstra about it.
I will start the process of updating my email address as I imagine it will take some time.

 

[RooFlyer]

I gave myself a year to transition away from my two bigpond emails. They are very old and were deeply embedded in all my various online accounts. I just had to wait a year to see what was going come through over time.

And then, even when I was absolutely sure I changed everything over from BigPond to Gmail, one from CBA Hollard insurance came, using my old BigPond.

I’m not going to cancel them. I’ll just let them sit there but rarely check them these days.

 

[Gladstone Tim]

Just be grateful you’re not with iiNet. They divested themselves of their email business and had it taken over by the Messaging Co if you wanted to pay to retain the email address. I am considering lodging a complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman their customer service has been so poor. I think they trained with QF based on their inability to keep commitments, time-wasting and ineffectiveness.

 

[33kft]

I think they trained with QF based on their inability to keep commitments, time-wasting and ineffectiveness.

The iinet brand was purchased by TPG in 2015. TPG is notorious in the telco industry for aggressive cost reduction. I used to be very involved in the telco industry and the stories about David Teoh (TPG CEO) and his cost reduction are legend. Word is after buying iinet, he had 3/4 of all exterior building lights removed to save money... think that sets the scene fairly well.

 

[cove]

Thanks for the iinet comments. We have no plan to go back there.
Mrscove’s Hotmail is feeding into our BigPond’s file somehow as TELSTRA’s work around.

 

[markis10]

Just be grateful you’re not with iiNet. They divested themselves of their email business and had it taken over by the Messaging Co if you wanted to pay to retain the email address. I am considering lodging a complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman their customer service has been so poor. I think they trained with QF based on their inability to keep commitments, time-wasting and ineffectiveness.

You cannot use the TIO as The Messaging Company is not a member. FWIW they were sold shortly after getting the iiNet business and are now owned by Norwegian Inbox.com.