News about O2’s Home Broadband and Home Phone Service

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

We have reached agreement with Sky for them to acquire our consumer Home Broadband and Home Phone business.

For more information on what this means, read more here: http://o2lin.kr/Z1CRJT

If you’d like to read our press release, it’s here: http://o2lin.kr/Z1zF10

O2 Social Media Team

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Gmail would be out as I use it at the moment sync'd to my mobile phone and I don't want that being loaded up with all the emails and images from members.

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You can have multiple Gmail addresses, Google doesn't mind.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I realise that but it still means changing everything when I don't know if it is going to be required. I do feel a little put out, though, in having to go through all this because o2 has sold the business, rather than the new owner honouring the existing "contract" (yes I know email is not specifiaclly written into the T&C's). Probably the worst aspect is not knowing exactly what is going to happen and when.

[Anonymous]

I understand. I always recommend people not to use ISP email in the first instance though, for exactly reasons like this.

[perksie]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 I do feel a little put out, though, in having to go through all this because o2 has sold the business, rather than the new owner honouring the existing "contract" (yes I know email is not specifiaclly written into the T&C's).

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O2 haven't said they aren't going to honour any existing contract, so it's highly unlikely that any changes will be made until you decide whether to move to Sky.

Obviously we will know more when the deal is finalised.

[Anonymous]

Sandcat

Currently I am advising all my customers to consider obtain their own domain name.  This frees you from the vagaries of ISPs and usually leaves you spam-free. A .co.uk costs £7 for 2 years.  Most suppliers give you a email forwarding service included for free and also have a full e-mail hosting service for £1 / month.  You can then use a free program like Thunderbird to obtain and store your emails, addresses etc effectively without limit and frtom all your email addresses.

In a previous post in this thread I mentioned my unsatisfactory experiences with Sky when they took over my former ISP - UKonline and susequently just shut it down and cancelled the email service completely.  I do have an unused Sky Mail email account that I have just had great difficulty accessing (try searching for it!!).  The problem is that they are currently changing over to Yahoo (or so they claim) but it is a Google mail set-up. I was unaware of this change and the take over will be completed in April.  The email is extremely basic - for example no subfolders unless you use complicated filters.  They also are only providing a POP3 service and stopping IMAP.  This incidentally makes it incompatible with the default Windows 8 email setup that does not accept POP3.  So your email will not be Sky but identical to the free google/yahoo set-up.  I tried for a few hours to contact them unsuccessfully to ask about sub-folders and archiving.

Aint seen anything about this in their PR blurbs about O2 takeover.  What else is being kept quiet - contention ratios  ???

Scotilla

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

They also are only providing a POP3 service and stopping IMAP.  This incidentally makes it incompatible with the default Windows 8 email setup that does not accept POP3.  So your email will not be Sky but identical to the free google/yahoo set-up.  I tried for a few hours to contact them unsuccessfully to ask about sub-folders and archiving.

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Sky Yahoo IMAP is "supported" for various clients, including Apple, Windows 8 and mobile devices. However, in my own tests, it works on all devices including desktop clients despite what they say.

[Anonymous]

Oliver

Thanks for your clarification.  But this is further evidence of change without clarity. It is the normal confusion - to quote from Sky.

 "If you are using a Windows 7 or earlier desktop based applications, you should use POP. This is because IMAP will no longer be supported on these applications on Sky Yahoo! Mail."

ColinH

PS  Don't get me started on Win8. Not after having had to sort out a single letter mis-spell during the start-up and verification process.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"If you are using a Windows 7 or earlier desktop based applications, you should use POP. This is because IMAP will no longer be supported on these applications on Sky Yahoo! Mail."

ColinH

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Yes, that's the official line. "Not supported" doesn't always mean "doesn't work" though, as this situation proves.

[Anonymous]

Sandcat, not strictly on-topic of Sky buy out but wouldn't you be better off setting up an FTP/Dropbox for your website. This would generally allow better upload/download file sizes that would suit images.

[Anonymous]

About to leave: In many ways, yes it would, and there could be other benefits as well. However some members are still getting to grips with email let alone any other system! Hence why I have stuck with a rather old and inflexible system (bit like some members - but don't tell them!!!:smileyhappy:).