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Post office forwards;
Is e-mail next?
By Dibya Sarkar
Associated Press
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The post office forwards letters when a person moves, and telephone companies likewise forward calls. Should Internet companies be required to forward e-mails to customers who switch providers?

There is no mandate governing e-mail forwarding, and industry officials say imposing one would be costly and unnecessary. But federal regulators are looking at the issue more closely following a complaint from a former America Online customer who claims an abrupt termination of service devastated her business.

Gail Mortenson, a Washington-based freelance editor, in July filed a six-page petition with the Federal Communications Commission, which opened a 30-day public comment period that ends Oct. 26, followed by another 30-day period for replies.

Mortenson said in her complaint that she lost potential clients because they couldn't reach her, and she requested that Internet service providers, such as Time Warner Inc.'s AOL LLC, be required to forward e-mail traffic from a closed account to a new e-mail address designated by customers for at least six months.

FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin said he wasn't aware of previous petitions regarding e-mail address forwarding or portability.

While mainstream consumer groups have not taken up the cause, it is starting to gain some attention in Congress.

Mortenson said a representative from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., contacted her Monday to say they were watching to see how FCC handles her complaint.

Messages left for the committee on Tuesday were not immediately returned.

Internet providers, including Time Warner Cable Inc., Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., as well as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., which provide e-mail services, declined to comment. Several said it's the first time they've heard about the issue.

Kate Dean, executive director of the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association - a trade group whose members include AOL, Verizon and Comcast - said it will respond to Mortenson's petition, but declined to make any comments until then.

Some companies, such as Yahoo and Google, allow their e-mail users to forward incoming mail to another address. There are other companies, such as Pobox.com, that also provide an e-mail forwarding service.

Richi Jennings, an analyst with San Francisco-based Ferris Research, said he imagines the FCC could mandate that companies provide a free e-mail forwarding service, but doubts that it would

"Such a forwarding service would cost the service providers money in network bandwidth, server utilization and operational overhead," he wrote in an e-mail. "Service providers typically operate with low margins, relying on volume to make acceptable profit."

Art Brodsky, spokesman for Public Knowledge, a public interest group, said there's ample consumer competition in the market and doesn't think the FCC will do anything further.

The company closed Mortenson's account last December soon after the company learned it was actually opened by her son several years earlier when he was a young teenager. The account was still in his name although Mortenson was paying for it.

AOL spokeswoman Anne Bentley wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press that AOL is still investigating the facts of Mortenson's petition, but said it has "strict policies to prevent minors from creating paid AOL member accounts."

She also said the company doesn't believe circumstances related to Mortenson's account "present any issue of public policy."

Mortenson said she wasn't given any warning and lost personal and professional e-mails, documents, contact information and other materials associated with her AOL screen name. She said the action hurt her business at the time and is considering a civil lawsuit against the Dulles, Va.-based company.

Mortenson, who now has two e-mail accounts from different companies, said she complained numerous times to the company before filing the petition with the FCC.

"Many people think it's a very stupid idea," she said. "My reason for doing this is to get AOL's attention. They didn't care about the adverse effects this was going to have on me."

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Reader comments on this story - 15 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

One month wrote on Oct 24, 2007 1:01 PM:

" I knew that my email was going to change and so one month prior, I made an automatic reponse to ALL emails sent to the old address would tell people that they should be directly emails to the new address. Then after one month of that, the old account was basically dead. This puts the responsibility on the individual and not the company. "

Technically trivial wrote on Oct 24, 2007 8:56 AM:

" This is a technically trivial thing to implement and I'm sure that most competent ISPs would implement if asked, most for free or for a very small fee. "

Read the actual article wrote on Oct 24, 2007 8:27 AM:

" The article states that her service was shut off without her knowledge, not that she cancelled it. "The company closed Mortenson's account last December soon after the company learned it was actually opened by her son several years earlier when he was a young teenager. The account was still in his name although Mortenson was paying for it." I agree that the policy is in place for a reason, but she should have at least been given notice. "Mortenson said she wasn't given any warning... " I am in full agreement that if you are going to switch providers it is YOUR responsibility to back-up the information, but this was no by her choice "

to Michelle: wrote on Oct 24, 2007 8:05 AM:

" that's the funniest thing I've ever read on the comment section! "

my 2 cents wrote on Oct 24, 2007 8:04 AM:

" Something not even mentioned in this article are the small ISPs, where customer service is still a priority. My company, for example, will charge the customer wanting their former email address forwarded, $5 per month, until they turn it off. Some of our sister companies will actually forward for free for three months. We charge to cover the administration (paperwork and such) and the bandwidth that account still uses traveling on our network. So, while this is a novel idea in theory, this could cause a chain reaction of government intervention into a non-regulated industry that could cause increased costs to the customers. "

no name wrote on Oct 24, 2007 6:30 AM:

" No ,if people change IPS they need to do whatever to keep their addresses ongoing. "

World's smallest violin wrote on Oct 24, 2007 6:13 AM:

" This has got to be one of the dumbest articles the pantagragh has ever published "

Michelle wrote on Oct 24, 2007 5:58 AM:

" People still use AOL??? "

Absolutely not wrote on Oct 23, 2007 11:52 PM:

" If you're using ISP-based email like AOL you're paying for a service; when you stop paying or close the account the service stops. It is your responsibility to backup data or forward anything you need. If Gail needed six months after her move to clean up her lack of proactive communication, she should have continued her AOL service for six more months. The USPS is a federal program provided to all residents of this country and funded as such. I would never patronize a privately-owned ISP that provided this service because I'd be paying "extra" for the overhead of managing others' lack of planning. "

JD wrote on Oct 23, 2007 6:33 PM:

" Most people that need this type of service, have already realized to use web based mail that is not dependent upon your ISP. There is no need for any type of regulation or mandate on this topic. What is needed is for people to take it upon themselves to not get put in the situation of losing their email address should they depend upon it. Why is it people continually look to the government to fix something they could easily fix themselves? Have Americans become so mentally deficient they need someone to look after them? "

You wouldn't know wrote on Oct 23, 2007 4:44 PM:

" how big of an issue this is until you switch providers. I though of it too late to print off my address book and Insight said there was no way to retrieve it. I was upset, but what was I to do? "

another thought wrote on Oct 23, 2007 4:06 PM:

" what if you are getting stalked by someone and you change your e-mail address to get away from this person. But if this goes through, then you would still get mail as it would be forward to your new account. "

GC wrote on Oct 23, 2007 3:53 PM:

" Here we go soon we will be paying out the nose for something thats not needed. Anyone opening bussiness and using email as a contact point should know better then to use another person email account family or not. What she going to cause is a email stamp tax to cover theoverhead cost or everyones free email accounts along with your paid service acounts will cost alot more. Thanks a bunch Gail Mortenson you will go down in history for sure. "

When will people learn wrote on Oct 23, 2007 3:26 PM:

" Backup anything that is important, suppose all the AOL servers fell in a big hole and lost all the data, who's fault is it, yours for not backing things up. This idea is a very stupid one and I'm sure people would expect it to be free as well. "

Nick wrote on Oct 23, 2007 2:53 PM:

" It would be nice "
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