Chronology of major changes in the free email industry

(The listed dates are the dates communicated by the services to their user base. In some cases, the effective closure date may differ from the announced closure date.)

April 2002

April 30: USA.net-powered AmexMail goes for-fee
April 24: Yahoo! Mail POP3 access and mail forwarding go for-fee (web-based email still free)
April 15: OneBox goes for-fee
April 7: KeftaMail shut down

March 2002

March 31: Altavista Mail shut down, ItList (bookmark service) goes for-fee
March 15: OperaMail changes service providers and scales back service offering, preserving user accounts but losing all existing email messages

February 2002

February 28: NameZero (free domain name service) shut down, MailAndNews supposed to stop, but is bought out and re-started with 24 hours notice to users
February 18: Another.com goes for-fee
February 15: NetIdentity/Friendly Email goes for-fee, NamePlanet mail forwarding goes for-fee web-based email still free)

January 2002

January 15: N2 Mail shut down
January 11: Freeze.com Mail goes for-fee

December 2001

December 31: Geek.com goes for-fee, Excite UK Mail shut down
December 21: Visto/MyVisto service shut down
December 1: Mail.com/Email.com and Mail.com-powered forwarding services go for-fee (web-based email still free)
Also in December: AT&T "kills" 1 million+ addresses by switching users from @home.com to @attbi.com domains - without forwarding mails addressed to @home.com!

November 2001

November 15: BN3 shut down
November 1: ApexMail goes for-fee, ZXMail goes for-fee

October 2001

October 31: Valise shut down, Stoned.com shut down
October 1: 2ndMail goes for-fee, Runbox goes for-fee
Also in October: USA.net/NetAddress goes for-fee

September 2001

September 28: WorldMailer shut down
September 7: Box.com shut down

August 2001

August 1: Mail Options (MailOps.com) goes for-fee

July 2001

July 27: eVoice (free voicemail) shut down
July 1: MacBox.com goes for-fee, FirstName.com goes for-fee
Also in July: NetAddress goes for-fee

June 2001

June 30: ChickMail shut down
June 18: GameSpot Mail shut down
Also in June: Celtic Mail goes for-fee

May 2001

May 11: Coolemail.net (PlanetaryMotion) shut down
May 10: ZKey (email and file storage) shut down

April 2001

April 27: XDrive (file storage) goes for-fee
April 15: Looksmart Mail shut down


June 2002: ECE-B 2001 OPENS UP FREE E-MAIL ACCOUNT SERVICE!!!

(source: emailaddresses.com)