FAQ: What happens to your email address when you change internet providers?

One consideration to make before switching internet providers is if you will be able to keep your email address. Changing your email address can take lots of time because you have to notify all of your contacts, and many web sites and services use your email address as your username or login.

If you cancel your AT&T Internet service, you can keep your (@sbcglobal.net, @att.net, @nvbell.net, etc.) email address. See section 5a in the AT&T Terms of Service.

If you have AOL and switch to high-speed internet, you can change to the “Free AOL” plan and keep your @aol.com email address as well as access to the AOL desktop program if you so choose.

On the other hand, if you have Charter Internet and you cancel your service, you lose your @charter.net email address. If you use their web site to view your email, you would also lose all saved emails. However if you use an email program such as Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail, any saved emails would remain in that program.

I recommend that you get an email address independent of your internet service provider – such as Google’s Gmail or Microsoft’s Outlook.com – for instances when you want to switch or just have another way for people or businesses to contact you.

It’s also good to have more than one email address through a different provider as a backup -just in case there’s a problem with your main provider. It’s also a good way to separate email by using one account for correspondence with friends and family, and a different account for business, purchase confirmations, etc.