In today's world, many people and businesses depend just as heavily on their e-mail address for their public point of contact as on their telephone number and physical address.
To date, people and businesses who wish to change their Internet Service Provider (ISP) because they are either unhappy with the service or because competing companies offer better internet package deals, cannot do so without inconvenience. In the absence of a mechanism to migrate e-mail addresses, should anyone decide to change, the service provider must either give up or manually take note of all the information stored in the original e-mail account. The other option is to pay for the retention of a stand-alone e-mail account. Hence, both people and businesses are often very reluctant to change their ISP.
To solve this situation, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Communications, in conjunction with the Malta Communications Authority, are proposing new legal provisions. The proposed amendments would basically oblige entities that provide electronic communications services to offer upon request, the service of forwarding all e-mail messages received by that subscriber to an e-mail address of the subscriber's choice for a period of six months.
This service would have to be offered free of charge to every subscriber who decides to terminate the Internet subscription and receives an electronic mail service from that service provider. Furthermore, during these six months the original ISP would also have to generate an automatic response to senders of e-mails to the subscriber's initial address, alerting them about the subscriber's new address.
After this six month period, the ISP would have to offer subscribers the possibility to extend the initial forwarding period at a charge, and this service should be available for an indefinite period. With regard to the original e-mail address, this can only be allocated to another subscriber after 12 months following the date of termination.
No technical barriers should be set up to prevent e-mails sent to the original address from being automatically forwarded to the subscriber's new address. This would guarantee the continuation of e-mail service, both to subscribers and the business community.
In view of these new proposals the Malta Communications Authority is inviting interested parties to submit their comments or propose alternative measures to address the issues raised more effectively. Any such comments or proposals should be clearly marked 'E-mail Mobility' and sent by February 19 to the attention of Steve Agius, Chief Information Officer, Malta Communications Authority, Valletta Waterfront, Valletta FRN1913. Tel. 2133 6840, Fax: 2133 6846, e-mail: steve.agius@mca.org.mt.