Cantab.net

The University of Cambridge offers email accounts to alumni on their Cantab.net service.

Firstly, do you really need another email account?

IMAP access is only available for paid accounts. I really don’t want data as important as email locked up like this. I would have to get a paid account if I used the service seriously.

I really didn't like their advertising message. So they’re offering “lifelong email” that is “ideal for keeping in touch with your Cambridge peers”. The same could be said of most email services. Unless you want the “prestigious @cantab.net address”, in which case I am very sorry indeed. I don’t want to cling to the past. “Sponsored premium accounts” is a nice way to say ‘we’ll give you a taster, then cripple the service by restricting access to your account unless you pay’.

The worst bit: “Just because your student account is being shut down does not mean you have to lose all those valuable emails!”. FUD. This is disgraceful. IMAP was created in 1986; it allows messages to be stored on your own computer, and transferred to any email account easily and quickly.

In conclusion, I don’t like how they’re positioning the service, or the business model. There are much better free email services that you probably already have an account with, and better paid services too.