It's Time To Get A Domain Name

I started out with a Mindspring Internet account in the 90's. Earthlink bought Mindspring, but let me keep my Mindspring Email address. I had to dump Earthlink about five years ago because I needed high speed Internet at home at the time and Earthlink didn't offer it in my area.

I signed up with AT&T Broadband for cable TV and internet. AT&T promptly sold that division to Comcast, which wouldn't let me keep my Email address. So I switched to Bellsouth for internet and cell phone service, the latter division called Bellsouth Mobility. Then Bellsouth and SBC combined cell operations and called it Cingular. Bellsouth then sold itself, and its share of Cingular, to AT&T. A flow chart is available for those that need it.

I'm getting an express/air card for my new laptop on Monday (if DHL delivers it when they say they will) so I stopped by the Cingular store this morning to see what I had to do to set up a Cingular wireless account, cancel Bellsouth dial up and transfer my Bellsouth Email address to the new wireless account.

I discovered that the "New AT&T" is a confederation not a republic. Cingular won't do anything with my Bellsouth Internet account. Worse, Cingular says that Bellsouth won't let me transfer its Internet account to Cingular. The only way I can keep my Email address is to pay a monthly bribe to Bellsouth and then use the Bellsouth Email address on the Cingular wireless account. One account for the price of two, what a deal.

So, I think it's time to get off the ISP merry-go-round and get a domain name. Then when AT&T tells its Bellsouth customers, and I know it will, that they can't keep their Bellsouth Email addresses, I won't care, because I won't have one.