Users of eircom.net email service face €6 fee from July or risk losing account

Login: Users will have to migrate to another provider or pay new fee

Adrian Weckler

Eir is to charge €5.99 per month for its webmail service from the start of July. The company had suspended the introduction of the fee during the pandemic lockdown.

The move is estimated to affect tens of thousands of Eircom.net email address users. Eircom.net email addresses are common among community associations, schools and voluntary associations.

The company's webmail service has been free for almost 20 years.

From July first, email account holders who don't pay won't be able to open individual email messages. If they don't pay within two months, their email account will be deleted.

Eir is understood to be implementing the move as the email service is a loss-making one that requires customer service resources.

The company's website says that the charge is being brought in "to provide a better service".

Eircom.net email users who do not wish to start paying the new €6 monthly subscription can export their emails and contact addresses to free services such as Gmail. Instructions for doing so can be found at support.google.com and involve setting up a Gmail account or using an existing Gmail account.

Eir executives say that they do not make money from email services, unlike Google, which sometimes uses the data from Gmail to supplement its advertising business.

However, it may leave thousands of people feeling trapped into paying a new monthly subscription to avoid losing access to their long-standing business, community and personal contacts.

In the UK, telecoms companies have been introducing similar charges on once-free services. BT customers reacted with dismay when the former incumbent recently raised prices to £7.50 (€8.80) per month for customers to use its email, while TalkTalk charges £5 (€5.88) per month.

Meanwhile, Eir also announced that its cut-price GoMo mobile phone network now has over 200,000 customers. Launched last October, the service offers 80GB of data with unlimited calls and texts for €13 per month, a tariff that undercuts rivals, including its own sibling Eir Mobile services.