Potential loss of btconnect.com mail addresses during house move

[JeremyHigginson]

I have had a collection of @btconnect.com mail addresses for years, along with a BT phone / broadband service, initially as a business but now just for personal use. Despite being a domestic customer I have been able to carry on using these addresses without too many problems.  But now I am about to move house, and will be without a permanent "anchor point" for my broadband service for several weeks. BT domestic say they can supply a mobile-phone based router (via EE), which is fine for general internet traffic, but they will not be able to keep my @btconnect.com mail addresses alive during this period (although @btinternet ones would be OK).

Can anyone give me any insight into whether this will really happen, and if so will it be from "day 1" when I move out, or will my email addresses (like so many other scenarios) just lurk around indefinitely? And how does BT Business get notified that my broadband contract has "gone mobile"?

Any insights gratefully received....

[kelper]

Open a gmail account now and, while you still have access, forward all your Btconnect emails to the Gmail account.

[JeremyHigginson]

Thanks for the response.

As it happens, I already have an established @gmail.com account, but I am already forwarding my @btconnect.com emails to my parallel @outlook.com accounts (so that I can continue to store them in my desktop Outlook archive). This works fine.

The question is: when  I move, will the @.btconnect.com mail server know that I have had my phone/fibre internet connection switched off and replaced by an EE mobile service (which is what BT will provide),  and therefore close down those email accounts, or will it be oblivious (as it seems to be right now)?

To be honest, I don't know how it would become aware of the change in service provision, and if that's the case, then I assume I could carry on as before, and save me the pain of having to alert all my contacts of a change in address, as well as changing my logins on the scores of online accounts that recognise the @btconnect.com address.

[kelper]

I agree, but plan for the worst case.  

[JeremyHigginson]

(The person I was speaking to at BT domestic said that if I were moving directly to a new property where I could use a cable-based connection, then my @btconnect.com mails would remain in play. For some reason, by switching to a mobile router, which I shall need to do for a few weeks, that wouldn't be the case, and they would be de-activated. I can't see why they would be treated differently just because my connection isn't buried underground!?

[VickyK]

Hi @JeremyHigginson ,

The BT connect email addresses are associated to BT business broadband. If you no longer have BT business broadband, the email accounts should be shut down. This doesn't always happen right away and can happen at any time which is maybe why you currently have access.

Moving property with residential would have an unknown impact on your BT connect email addresses as they are a business service.

I'm sorry I couldn't give you more clarity on the situation and wish you luck with the move!

Thanks,

^VickyK

[JeremyHigginson]

Thanks Vicky. It's probably 10 years since I ceased to operate my company and switched my broadband service from a limited company to private use, and over that time I have been given conflicting advice on whether or not my business email addresses will remain in service, but at the moment they are still there, and there is plenty of evidence that I am not the only one! 

To be honest, I can't see why they can't be retained for use, as the overall impact on BT's storage load is likely to be minimal. But maybe I should just set up as a self-trader, and re-register the broadband account to a business entity. Would that get round the problem?