As we announced earlier this year, we’re taking over the email services for several of the original free ISP email accounts.
Those services are:
- @iol.ie
- @iolfree.ie
- @oceanfree.net
- @esatclear.net
It’s a bit of Irish internet history …
When the internet was introduced to the Irish market many many years ago IOL and other ISPs were some of the first providers in the Irish market. When you signed up for a dialup connection with them you also got access to email.
While the companies and ISP services that originally provided these free email services are long gone and most Irish internet users have moved away from dialup, those original email services have been quietly working away for all this time.
So what’s going on now?
BT Ireland has sent emails to all active users of iol.ie, iolfree.ie, oceanfree.net and esatclear.net.
As explained in the FAQ on the BT site, if you want to keep using your free email address you must opt-in on the BT side and then follow through to complete the signup with ourselves.
If you DO NOT opt-in and complete the signup your email will stop working.
We’ve also been asked some questions about the services we will be offering …
- As we outlined in our FAQ, we have committed to offering the email service for free for at least the next 12 months.
- We are not taking over any website service that may have been offered by IOL et al in the past.
- For security reasons we will not be allowing new signups using any of these legacy email domains. If we were to allow “new” signups there’s a very high risk of services tied to old email addresses being hijacked.
- If you do not opt-in within the next few days your email account will be disabled
- Blacknight cannot takeover the accounts of users who have not opted in. Due to data protection concerns we only have access to those accounts that have opted to move both on the BT side and on ours
Our team have also created some articles that answer some technical questions.
If you have any questions let us know!
NB: For account specific issues eg. you are having issues sending or receiving email , please contact our helpdesk directly.
About the Author: Michele Neylon
2 Comments
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Looks like I missed the boat on the transfer of old Oceanfree email account.
Is it still possible to transfer account?
I no longer have access so can’t see email from BT.
Aidan
If you missed the cut off date then it’s unlikely we’ll be able to assist you. If you can contact our helpdesk directly with the affected email addresses we can see what we know about them and possibly provide you with options. Unfortunately there are no guarantees.
Michele