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Federal Regulators Consider E-Mail Forwarding Mandate

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

WASHINGTON - The post office forwards letters when a person moves, and telephone companies likewise forward calls. Should Internet companies be required to forward e-mail to customers who switch providers?

There is no mandate governing e-mail forwarding, and industry officials say imposing one would be costly and unnecessary. However, federal regulators are looking at the issue more closely after a complaint from a former America Online customer who says an abrupt termination of service devastated her business.

In July, Gail Mortenson, a Washington-based freelance editor, filed a six-page petition with the Federal Communications Commission, which opened a 30-day public comment period that ends Friday, followed by another 30-day period for replies.

Mortenson said in her complaint that she lost potential clients because they could not reach her, and she requested that Internet service providers, such as Time Warner's AOL, be required to forward e-mail traffic from a closed account to a new e-mail address designated by customers for at least six months.

AOL closed Mortenson's account last December soon after the Dulles, Va.-based company learned it was actually opened by her son several years earlier when he was a young teenager. The account was still in his name, although Mortenson was paying for it.

Mortenson said she was not given any warning and lost personal and professional e-mail, documents, contact information and other materials associated with her account. FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin said he was not aware of previous petitions regarding e-mail forwarding or portability.

Kate Dean, executive director of the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association - a trade group whose members include AOL, Verizon and Comcast - said it will respond to Mortenson's petition but declined to comment until then.

Some companies, such as Yahoo and Google, allow their e-mail users to forward incoming mail to another address. There are companies such as Pobox.com that specialize in e-mail forwarding.

Richi Jennings, an analyst with Ferris Research, said he doubts that the FCC would mandate that companies provide free e-mail forwarding.

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