Late last week we were greeted with the news that BT, the UK’s largest telecoms provider, is to drop Yahoo! as the provider of its email platform for over 6 million active email accounts. That’s a lot of users to lose in one fell swoop, but BT cited on-going security concerns as the reason for this declaration. This quickly follows a security breach in Japan which saw 22 million Yahoo! accounts compromised, adding to a very bad month of May for Marissa Mayer.
Email is still a critically important offering from service providers, and BT’s decision to change messaging platform on the grounds of security highlights this. Rather than compromise the integrity of subscribers’ data, BT has taken the difficult decision to migrate over 6 million email accounts, and should be applauded for putting the needs its customers first.
The key for service providers is to be able to offer a service that meets the demands of their customers – on every level – and by working with a large organisation such as Yahoo! they are restricted in terms of what changes they can make to the core email service. We are seeing a trend towards service providers moving away from over-the-top email offerings from Yahoo! and Google, with BSkyB being one of the few recent exceptions. There are numerous reasons for this, including control of the platform, privacy and security concerns, direct access to the customers, better user experience and better integration into other services – ultimately controlling your own fate.
Developing a custom email platform gives BT the opportunity provide a better experience for its users, however it runs the risk of criticism if this new offering falls short of the expectancy of its subscriber base.
It’s a critical time for BT, as they look to increase subscriber levels by offering a new premium sports channel for all subscribers, let’s see if they can get the basics right.
