Can I keep my Orange email address?

Q

When I was an Orange customer years ago, I set up an email address ending in orange.net — and that’s been my main contact point ever since. Last week I got an email purportedly from EE saying that my email address will stop working at the end of May this year. At first I thought it might be spam but Googling around it seems to be real, and EE has taken over Orange. I absolutely do not want to switch because everyone I know contacts me at the orange.net address. Is there any way to keep it? I don’t mind paying. If not, what should I do? And what will happen if people email my old address? I also have a really old Hotmail address people sometimes email me on. Is this at risk also? I use Mail in Windows 10, incidentally. Debbie Collier

A

Unfortunately, this email from EE is legitimate and your orange.net email account will be permanently disabled on 31 May. Orange became part of EE years ago, and has for a long while been a ‘legacy’ brand and service.

We’re sure that if you found a few million quid down the back of the sofa and offered it to EE, then the company might find a way to keep your Orange email address working. Back in the real world, however, the firm has committed to shutting down a number of its legacy domains. For the benefit of other readers who might be affected, these include orangehome.co.uk, wanadoo.co.uk, freeserve.co.uk, fsbusiness.co.uk, fslife.co.uk, fsmail. net, fsworld.co.uk and fsnet.co.uk. If you have an email address with any of these domains you should read EE’S statement and guide: www.snipca.com/23914.

People emailing your orange.net address from June will in return receive a failure message, so you need to act fast: let everyone in your contact book know your alternative address. You might also want to set up a new account. EE itself recommends Gmail ( www.gmail.com) — and we can’t argue with that for those needing an alternative. To import emails from an existing account, click the Gmail Settings cog followed by Settings then ‘Import mail and contacts’, and follow the prompts. This will work for your Orange account until 31 May.

However, in your particular case you already have a Hotmail account so it’s not imperative that you set up a new email account. Microsoft owns the hotmail.com domain, and it is likely to be killed off eventually — and the company long ago changed the name of the web version to Outlook.com.

As you also have a Hotmail account active and set up in Windows 10 Mail you could even set up an automatic message to tell people your alternative email address. In Mail, click the Hotmail account on the left, then click the Settings cog followed by Automatic Replies. Flip the Send Automatic Replies switch to On (see screenshot), and then type a suitable message into the pane below.