Vodafone email limps to closure

Vodafone customers are on final notice that it will turn off its email services this week.

The telecommunications company decided in September to axe its Clear, iHug, Paradise and Vodafone email services in a move that was expected to impact more than 200,000 customers.

The decision followed months of problems with high levels of spam and delayed mail.

Spokeswoman Kiri Coughlan said had there had been intermittent outages in recent weeks that meant some customers would have seen the delivery of email delayed by several hours.

‘‘This further underlines why closing the email service was a necessary decision because the aging technology can no longer keep pace with today’s volume of messages,’’ she said.

Vodafone’s service was ‘‘not delivering the sort of experience our customers need and expect from us’’, she added.

The company has encouraged customers to set up a free email account with Google’s Gmail service or with Microsoft Outlook.

Coughlan said 123,000 customers had enabled a service that would ensure emails sent to their old Vodafone addresses would be forwarded to a new account of their choice.

She urged customers who had not set up a new account and enabled auto-forwarding to do so before its own email services closed overnight tonight.

‘‘It is important for our customers to know that if they set up that service before midnight Thursday, then they will be able to import their old emails and contacts to their new email address,’’ she said.

‘‘We have Vodafone Ninjas on standby ready to help any customers who need additional assistance.’’