TPG Telecom, the company that owns several of Australia’s largest internet service providers (ISP), recently announced that it’s no longer providing email services to customers. The telco runs the likes of TPG, Internode, iiNet and Westnet. As a result, customers need to migrate to another service to retain email access, which, for some, could be a costly exercise.
“TPG has made the decision to stop providing email services,” a statement on the TPG support site said. “This change will help us focus on creating better experiences for our core products: internet and mobile.”
For many Australians, an ISP-provided email address is tied to all sorts of online accounts, ranging from core services – financial institutions, social media profiles, etc. – to customer loyalty programs with retailers. Some customers have used ISP email services for decades, so the thought of needing to change an account tied to many other services is understandably stress-inducing.
To assist affected users, TPG has partnered with The Messaging Company, an Australian email service, to offer free migrations so you can keep your emails, contacts, and calendar events tied to your TPG account. As reported by the ABC, TPG will cover the costs of an email account with The Messaging Company for 12 months. After that, it’ll become an additional cost on top of your internet bill.
Users directly impacted by TPG shutting down will have received a notice via email containing information about the impending service closure. In this notice, a date was mentioned when TPG email access would be suspended, meaning an inability to send and receive emails. Suspended emails are then due for deletion following 30 November 2023.
TPG, Internode, iiNet, Westnet email replacements
The Messaging Company
Your natural first port of call is to consider using the transfer service offered by TPG and The Messaging Company. Included on TPG’s support site is a set of instructions detailing how to migrate your email account.
By following a link to the transfer service specifically set up for the migration, you can follow the prompts to set up your account with The Messaging Company. As mentioned earlier, this means you’ll retain your stored emails, contacts and calendar events.
According to a frequently asked questions section on The Messaging Company website, you won’t have to pay for your migrated email service until “late 2024”. As that window draws closer, you’ll be contacted about any changes, including payment, related to the service.
The Messaging Company is an Australian organisation part of the Atmail group of companies. It’s only popped up publicly this year seemingly in response to the shutdown of the TPG/Internode/Westnet/iiNet emails. A blog post from The Messaging Company is non-committal to a pricing structure, given that there’s the possibility that TPG could continue covering the costs beyond 2024. Regardless, the FAQs mention that The Messaging Company intends “to offer a webmail service for no or very low cost through to premium services.” This also includes the option for custom email domains, as in “example@yourcompanyname.au” etc.
Although it’s tricky to commit long-term without knowing the costs, it seems to be, at the very least, a decent stopgap measure for anyone under the TPG Telecom umbrella. The built-in migration tool to ensure you retain everything from your previous ISP email service makes it a worthwhile option.
Proton Mail
One popular email provider for privacy-conscious users is Proton Mail. It’s a Swiss-based encrypted email service that also includes several other features like secure cloud storage, a VPN, and more.
If you don’t need much storage, there’s a free option that includes one email address in addition to 1GB of mail storage. Beyond that, the first paid tier starts at around $6 a month which comes with 15GB of storage, 10 email addresses, and one custom domain. Naturally, the more you pay, the more features and addresses you get in return.
Proton also has a migration tool, letting you bring across your emails, contacts and calendars from an existing email service.
Gmail, Outlook, and more
There is no shortage of email providers, with some of the heavy hitters also worthy contenders. You can grab an Outlook email for free, with the premium features starting at $3 a month, and it could also be an option if you already pay for the Office apps with Microsoft 365.
Almost considered ubiquitous when it comes to email, Gmail is also a robust free option. Custom email domains – typically used for businesses and sole traders – start at $8.40 per month. If you previously used TPG for business email domains, you can migrate the data to Google Workspace by following Google’s instructions.
TPG email shutdown leaves many in the dark
These are just some of your options following the TPG email shutdown, which you’ll also want to consider if you’re a customer with Westnet, iiNet, and Internode. If you’re unsure about your long-term email plans, processing The Messaging Company migration will at least buy you a decent chunk of time before you’ll need to consider paid options.
Regardless, a lot of people have been put out by the impending service shutdown. Arguably one of the biggest inconveniences for many is having to change the email linked to accounts like banks and social media accounts. As someone with a long list of services connected to an old Internode webmail, I’m not looking forward to the labour-intensive task of switching them all over.
I haven’t received any info yet, don’t fancy spending hours looking for info and wouldn’t know where to start. We pay only for 2 email addresses, being an old customer of iinet, but couldn’t continue fir Internet as service not provided when we moved address, so here we go again.
Although it’s not a lot of fun managing email services, I think this is pretty weak. I’d be seeing an opportunity to change my Internet provider as well as my email address (and choosing an email provider not dependent on cost-cutting or whim).
Been with Internode for 20 years, poor thing to do shutting down email, i will definately be moving my business elsewhere
Been with Internode for almost 20 years and generally been very happy with them, but I feel really shafted by this move. I will be now looking for a stand alone email provider, and then ditching Internode as my provider (and won’t touch anyone else in the TPG group).
Clearly feels a treacherous move against long term customers that supported the service providers when they were in a fledgling industry and needed us.TPG starting to look like many large uncaring business focusing away from customer care. The fallout for their email customers after relying on the service is huge and problematical. Many customers will have a large number (100’s) of support and business contacts relying on their email address.
Yeah TPG sure did destroy everything. Fist signed up to Vtown way back in the day when internet was first rolled out. So I’ve have the same email address since I brought my very first computer many, many years ago.
Westnet brought out Vtown. Westnet were amazing. Customer service was the best. Great deals and always gave free upgrades along the way being a customer.
Then iiNet took them over and it all started going to S**T. Offshore call centre and the ISP was a joke. I only kept with them because of my email account.
Then TPG took over and that was the nail in the coffin for IiNet. What was once the best ISO in Australia is now the laughing stock of a once great true company.
There is now talk of TPG folding up every company it brought out and just running with the TPG brand.
This ship has sunk. It’s could of been the greatest company. But TPG has completely destroyed it.
An internode customer for over 20 years. Transferred to a new provider today. Vote with your feet people.
Yes, another annoyed person here. Joined TIG many years back after Telstra mucked me around too much, then taken over by IHUG, then taken over by iiNET then taken over by TPG with a steady decrease in support ability all the way down.
Totally annoyed by the need to change email addresses, now moving to Gmail as the possible long term reliable alternative but about 8 email addresses to sort and sift with near 25 years of banks, shops, govt agencies and personal contacts, it’s a mess.
Bad enough but the icing on the totally rotten TPG cake is that I lose all my web pages set up in iiNET space. That is a real pain.
Looking for an alternative ISP and maybe Tangerine run by the Branson brothers could be a sensible and cheaoer alternative. Having “free” personal web pages has probably gone forever.
i phonrd internode on monday 18 september asking whats happened to email. i sas told there was outage. i askede for more informsation. after 14 years to be tated like this is dispicable. i didnot get an email advising of the change im very upset and in the lurch
I’ve been with Internode for over 30 years, back to the days of dial up modems. Appreciate Simon Hackett sold that company a long time and it continues to descend into a soulless corporation under TPG’s rule from what was once a very cool company. I’ll be changing my ISP at home and at my business from internode to another company as a direct response to this breach of trust.
I have been with Westnet since dial up days something like 30 years ago.
They have been the best ISP ever, but the rot started with IInet and it’s just got worse ever since.
TPG has just blown it for me now, I don’t know where to go yet but will be jumping ship and certainly not with any TPG subsidiary either.
It was bad enough that their pricing was over the top and now deserting us without email service is a disgusting act upon us and to top it all off they won’t even drop their plan pricing to compensate.
It would not be too bad if they paid the email servers fees.
Can’t believe this is happening.
i transfered now i cant access my email or contact tmc
This is just another example of corporates showing absolute disdain for their customers, particularly in Australia for some reason. I have several email and internet accounts across TPG’s various brands and I will certainly be moving them all on. It will be a huge job.
The competition regulators need to start taking a harder stance on these corporates taking over well run and locally owned entities and then treating the Australian consumers like they are simply a necessary evil..