[Discuss] [POSSIBLE SPAM] Re: Real internet provider in Victoria?

[Darren Duncan]

On 2017-11-04 9:01 AM, Deryk Barker (Honorary Colleague) wrote:
> Does it not strike anyone else as strange that you can switch telephone providers and keep the same number, even though the technology is well over a century old, yet email addresses...

I recall it took government intervention to make that work with telephone 
numbers, and that only happened relatively recently, maybe a decade or so ago.

As for your comparison, I would say that is apples and oranges.  Moving 
telephone numbers around is more like moving domain names around, or possibly IP 
addresses.  An individual foo at shaw.ca email is akin to phoning Shaw and then 
entering a phone extension number to connect to an individual desk in the 
company.  Not being able to port a phone number is like not being able to move 
your own domain name from one host to another.

It is true though that ISPs should at least temporarily sell an 
email/hosting-only service so one can pay to maintain an address independently 
of using them as a pipe.

-- Darren Duncan