FLORIDA —
QUESTION: I am a Cox cable customer and thinking of going with a rival cable competitor because of the high cost of service. The only thing that kept me with Cox was that Cox was my email service provider, and I didn’t want to change my email address, which I had for over 30 years. However, Cox has recently migrated all its email services to Yahoo.com without having to change our cox.net email account. Here’s my question, can I now go to another cable service provider without fear of losing my old cox.net email address?
– Herb B.
Niceville, Florida
ANSWER: Wow, the questions about this Cox email migration just keep on coming. Just when I think I’ve answered everything there is about this issue, another question raises its head. But helping people with questions is why I write this column, so I’ll be happy to take a crack at yours too, Herb.
The answer is more complicated than I would have thought, and I’ll do my best to explain all the nuances. Unfortunately, the simplest answer is no, you can’t keep your old cox.net email if you go to another provider. However, it’s not quite as cut-and-dried as a simple “no.”
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that you’ll lose it, but “Not right away.”
For whatever reason, be it the good grace of Cox and Yahoo!, or maybe just how long it takes for an account termination request to travel between the two companies, once you terminate your service agreement with Cox, you’ll be able to access your moved email as you always have for a full 90 days. After that, you’ll lose access to the account. Of course, if you don’t leave Cox, the email account will just continue to exist on Yahoo.
For people who are bound and determined to cut the cable and leave Cox completely, there are ways to retain your email, even if you can’t retain the @cox.com email address. That may sound odd if you don’t understand that your email content can actually be separated from the address that was used to create and maintain it.
Cox performing a full-on transition of all of their @cox.com to Yahoo! is a perfect example of this in action.
You can do similar things with other providers such as Gmail.
It’s possible to transfer most, if not all of the messages in your email account over to Gmail’s servers. Then, using an @gmail.com address, you can basically continue where you left off, except using a different service; importantly, one that’s free, and won’t go away if you switch content providers.
The actual steps to do the switch vary depending on who your old and new email providers are. The best way to get instructions is to Google something like “how to transfer a Cox email account to Gmail” and visit the links that come up.
I think it’s safe to say that the days of email accounts that are associated with TV and Internet providers are, or are rapidly becoming, a thing of the past.
The way people use their email accounts these days goes beyond simple communication between friends and family members. With the increasing amount of people tying their email to everything from their mortgage to their credit card and more, it’s really difficult to change addresses at the drop of a hat.
Choose a provider with which you can forge a “forever” relationship.
Jeff Werner, a software engineer based in Niceville, Florida, has been writing his popular “It’s Geek to Me” tech column since 2007. He shares his expertise to help readers solve everyday tech challenges. To view additional content, comment on articles, or submit a question, visit ItsGeekToMe.co (not .com!)
