More e-mail woes for former AT&T Broadband users

Comcast has confirmed that it is ditching the AT&T Broadband e-mail domain, forcing more than two million customers to select new e-mail addresses. This means a third e-mail address change in 12 months for the 200,000 former AT&T Broadband customers, who were also once Media One subscribers.

AT&T Broadband users with attbi.com addresses will have to switch to a Comcast.net address. Customers can continue to use the first portion of their current address, for example johndoe@, as long as an existing Comcast customer is not already using that address.

All users will be completely migrated off of AT&T Broadband’s system in about 60-days with migrations starting in March.

While other service providers have supported e-mail addresses for many years from companies they acquired, Comcast seems to be taking a different approach.

The service provider is eager to drop the AT&T Broadband name. In fact when Comcast’s acquisition of AT&T Broadband was first announced the companies said the merged unit would be called AT&T Comcast. When the deal became final in November, Comcast changed its mind and the joint company was referred to simply as the new Comcast.

And now it is severing its ties with the AT&T e-mail brand name. The company could forward attbi.com e-mail addresses to its system but instead Comcast choosing to go with a seamless brand, despite the inconvenience to users.

Several years ago, I had a dial-up account with Sprint when it still supported consumer customers. EarthLink later acquired that business from Sprint and maintained @sprintmail.com e-mail addresses.

Less than two years ago I switched to EarthLink DSL, which in my area is provided through Mindspring’s network, owned by EarthLink. EarthLink has provided us with the choice of using a @mindspring.com, @earthlink.com or @sprintmail.com address.

While Comcast might be concerned users would be confused by all of the different brands I can assure you it’s a moot point. My bill says EarthLink. It’s pretty clear who’s providing my service. EarthLink’s flexibility has allowed me to maintain the same e-mail address for about five years. This is the type of choice and customer service that users want today.