UK ISP Sky Broadband Migrates Google Email Platform to Yahoo Alternative

Customers of Sky Broadband (BSkyB), specifically those that use the ISPs existing Sky Email service, have been advised that they will shortly be migrated to a new Yahoo! based webmail platform (Sky Yahoo! Mail) because “Google is no longer able to provide Sky with an email platform that caters for our requirements“.

Sadly it’s unclear precisely what “requirements” Sky had for its email service that Google couldn’t accommodate. In any case customers have been told that their current Sky Email service will come to a grinding halt in April 2013, unless they agree to the new Terms & Conditions for Sky’s replacement service.

Sky states that customers who agree to the new terms will then automatically have their emails, contacts and calendars transferred to the new service in April 2013 (but not CHAT history because Google and Yahoo! use separate systems). Existing email addresses, logins and passwords will NOT change. It’s well known that mass email migrations don’t always go smoothly and Sky has warned about some possible problems.

Sky Statement

On the day that we switch to the new service you might notice that some of your very recent emails take up to 24 hours to appear. If you have any existing emails that you’ll need on the switch day, we recommend that you forward these to another email address or print them off. This is just to avoid any wait while your mailbox is copied over.

The new service will “look a little different” from the old one but it does have some new features, such as a tabbed view (allows you to have multiple emails open at the same time) and unlimited storage (no restrictions on how many emails you can store). Customers who access the service via a third party client using IMAP settings will also need to make some changes to use POP instead.

A specific date for the migration has not yet been set (expect one closer to the time) but Sky notes that customers whom have not accepted the new Terms & Conditions will, from the final date, be given a further 30 days to decide before their Sky Email goes down the drain for good.

Sky Email Change Details
https://my.sky.com/mysky/makethemost/sky-email/info/a2h/