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Forethought discontinues legacy email service

Free email services have created too much competition for the longtime Colorado provider
Colorado based Forethought.net is discontinuing its email service in early July. (Durango Herald file)

Residents using forethought.net for their email services – which includes the domain names forethought.net, frontier.net and brainstorminternet.net – will want to consider a different option starting July 7.

The company sent an email to its users on May 5 alerting them that the service would no longer be available after that time. The decision comes as little surprise as services like Gmail and Microsoft Outlook have become the predominant email providers around the world.

Gmail alone holds 29.5% of the email client market globally and has about 1.8 billion active users, according to surveys completed by analytics provider Demand Sage.

Forethought.net started in 1995 in Denver offering internet and phone services. Today, it has expanded its offices to Durango, Grand Junction and Gypsum.

In the email sent by Forethought, it offered instructions for how customers can change email service providers and that users should alert contacts that their email has changed.

It also indicates that users trying to save old emails may want to forward those emails from their old Forethought account to their new account under a different provider.

In an email sent to The Durango Herald, Forethought’s customer service team said with many people opting to use free email services, it did not make sense to keep offering the service.

“It wasn’t an easy decision, as we have appreciated their support and business over the years, but one that we had to make as a business,” the email said.

Forethought owns Brainstorm, an internet service provider in Durango. The transaction took place in October 2013. Brainstorm offers services in Southwest Colorado as well as parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

tbrown@durangoherald.com



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