Email service to killed off permanently
> Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 19:12:45 +0200
> Subject: Welcome to force9!
> From: Force 9 <enquiries@force9.net>
> To: newbie@MyAccount.force9.net
>
> Welcome to Force 9!
>
> Blah, blah, blah ...
>
> Happy surfing!
UNLIMITED e-mail addresses and UNLIMITED webspace plus no end of other goodies various part and parcel of the original and subsequent deals various. However, as has already been said, numerous Ts&Cs updates since day 1 have come and gone with many not actually available in hard copy (so to speak) just online. Information that curiously disappears over time and/or seems to get subtely tweaked 
I'm really not so sure that there is anything at all stopping the plug being pulled without much in the way of any notice and with no significant consequences. I've even tried to get info in writing regards historic stuff and obtain hard copy or pdf TsCs etc but I've never been in any way successful in getting them. Recent(ish) questions raised just got ignored if not 'accidentally' deleted without response. Maybe it's a different story for business customers though ?
If this all turns out to be entirely factually correct in due course then as posted somewhere else around here the other day, it will come as no real surprise to me that email and webspace join the list of other historic services various that have long since been dumped by PN. They will certainly not be the first ISP to do so that's for sure.
I also think the writing has been very much on the wall ever since "email only accounts" that used to be chargeable apparently became free-of-charge a while back. This together with problems various, many of which just don't get much attention let alone actually get sorted out, have been indicators that bad news is likely coming sometime in the not too distant future. Same story regarding problems various with webspace.
The best part of 25 years of daily email and webspace usage ... and it's going to be a right old PITA if/when that has to come to end 
But like it or not, all good things DO come to end eventually and it could even potentially be the case that I do before such rumours/concerns/worries actually become hard facts and reality so I may not actually need to worry about sorting it at all 
@Clangrant wrote:
some obligation to observe the service originally contracted for - even if it's only a moral one.
Hmmmm, BT and moral obligation in the same sentence ? Now there's something you don't see every day do you ... and that could quite possibly be for good reason [*]
I'm certainly prepared to fight if needs be and if there is a realistic possibility of winning *IF* an official announcement is made at some point in time, that's for sure.
[*] Sorry, but I really couldn't resist ! 
@jab1 wrote:
How high up is your source? genuine question.
Maybe this partly answers your question.....
I don't think this will happen any time soon. I got my contract renewal email today (12/11/21), near the bottom it has a section stating what new customers receive, and it says an email address (not "unlimited" email addresses, like what I have now), on a new 18 month contract:
@Uncle_Tupelo wrote:
I'd argue that it is not a free service as you cannot access it without paying a monthly fee. At best, it's a poorly supported part of the package your monthly fee covers. But it ain't free.
I agree in principle and I've also paid well over the odds for many years to stay with PN and not make any voluntary contractual changes to my BT or PN services. Circa £50/m at some points for bog standard ADSL via a market 3 exchange. But the amount of time, effort and financial incentives expended by PN in convincing me to take on a new contract with new Ts&Cs and transfer the line from BT relatively recently was something else. Not to mention the encouragement from BT in the form of incessant price increases to do so as well !
There was no doubt in my mind that BT/PN were on a mission to have everything under one roof, with new Ts&Cs and tied in for a period of time with price not really being an issue. The new contract was always going to be a potential problem when VOIP becomes the norm regardless of whether email/webspace continues or not. I'd ultimately be faced with losing 25 years of PN a/c or losing 30+ years of landline number and so on at some point in time.
However, it just seems that every effort appears to have been made by BT/PN to justify not providing much in the way of support if not pulling the plug on certain services. Services that are only stated as being 'free' now because they have chosen to make it so. Services that are fairly routinely not supported very well, if at all. Previously, they were always part of a package and therefore without any doubt effectively charged accordingly. But when people (like me) are currently paying today's relatively cheap prices for yesterday's relatively expensive services, it's hard to see what grounds you have for complaining if/when any alleged 'free stuff' gets taken away. Likewise those ex-customers who are apparently still using/abusing PN email for absolutely no charge whatsoever.
The one thing you can be sure of though is that BT lawyers will have spent countless hours crawling all over the Ts&Cs etc to ensure that they can wield the big stick if they need/want to for any particular reason that might take their fancy If dumping email and webspace just so happens to be in their plans then they sure as h*ll will have their backside suitably covered accordingly I would suggest.