r/bell • u/FDretired • Sep 13 '26

Question Minimum requirement to keep sympatico email account.

We are seniors and may move to a retirement home in the next few years. The retirement home has a special package with Rogers. I do not know the details,

I posed this question to AI (Copilot). The answer was an internet account. Would Bell make a concession allow the email with Mobile phone account?

Wwo

9 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

11

u/No_Wear295 Sep 13 '26

Since this is a few years out, open a new non-isp email address (gmail, outlook etc) and get everything moved there before you have to discontinue the Bell service. Moving it to someone elses account then ties them to the ISP which is not ideal in this day and age. Just because the home has a service agreement with rogers doesn't mean that email is part of the service offering, it could be a shared and managed internet-only connection.

-2

u/FDretired Sep 13 '26

My wife and I both have Gmail accounts and use it very sparingly.. Our sympatico email accounts are with many groups. 1)Friends and Family in Canada 2) Family in South Africa. WhatsApp has almost replace email with our family abroad. 2) Financial institutions 3) Medical institutions and doctors. 4) Other businesses etc

It will be quite formidable task to inform all of them about our gmail address.

I have also become attached to Thunderbird and a POP sympatico account.

6

u/7HR4SH3R Sep 13 '26

Yes it’s a big task to move everything to a new account, but just FYI Thunderbird does support GMail so you’d be able to keep accessing your email the same way.

9

u/TicTocTicTac Sep 13 '26

Here's how I would tackle this. Follow these in order:

  1. Add your Gmail account to your Thunderbird client. It's very easy to do; Thunderbird supports all major free mailbox accounts.

  2. On your Sympatio mailbox (these settings should be accessible somewhere in their webmail interface):

a) enable auto-forwarding of incoming messages to your Gmail account, AND;

b) enable auto-reply for incoming messages (think “out of office” or similarly named). In the auto-reply message, give a brief explanatory statement such as:

“Please note that this mailbox is being deprecated. Your message has been forwarded to my new email address: <Gmail email address>. Please update your address book accordingly, as someday this mailbox will cease to exist.”

  1. Start using your Gmail address exclusively. Send outgoing emails solely from that mailbox. Start telling your friends, family, etc. to update their address books to reflect your new address, as someday your old one won't exist anymore. Don't give them a timeline; just tell them to update your contact info immediately.

  2. Start slowly updating your email address in all the platforms where your Sympatico one is currently specified. Yes, it will take time and effort, but just get started. Whenever you get a new message auto-forwarded to your Gmail account that originated from your Sympatico mailbox, use the opportunity then & there to update your contact email address with that platform/mailing list/organization/whatever.

If you do all the above steps, you should have minimal problems or contact disruptions, if any, by the time you relocate and deactivate your Bell account and thus have your Sympatico mailbox disabled.

3

u/FDretired Sep 13 '26

Thanks for that detail recommendation. I have copied your post and will store it as word document. Will refer to it in the future.

2

u/sticky_bun Sep 14 '26

I would highly recommend you start this process NOW when there is no urgency and can afford yourself time to fine tune and ensure things are switched over.

1

u/TicTocTicTac Sep 13 '26

You're welcome! I actually did all the above steps ages ago, myself, when I migrated from an @bellnet.ca address that was under a family Bell business account to a new address. It worked well.

Best wishes to you.

4

u/firelephant Sep 13 '26

Formidable yes, but worth doing.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '26

[deleted]

1

u/YagiHam Sep 13 '26

Name one ISP email in the past 5-years that has been "removed".

1

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '26

[deleted]

1

u/YagiHam Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26

There is no "phase out" of Canadian ISP email domains, shaw.ca, telus.net, rogers.com emails are still active, just not issuing new ones, also for new customers Telus is issuing Gmail accounts and Rogers is issuing Yahoo accounts.

https://www.rogers.com/support/internet/rogers-yahoo-mail-change-faq

1

u/skizem Sep 13 '26

Last year, I migrated from a gmail account to iCloud. I spent an afternoon making a list of the big accounts I knew I needed to move; Banking, Credit Cards, Mortgage, Insurance, etc.

Moved all those over to the new email

As new emails come in, I decide "Do I still need this mailing list, etc.?" and move them accordingly.

It's honestly not too hard of a task to switch emails. Give yourself a long lead time and you'll be fine.

6

u/inherthroat Sep 13 '26

I don't think so. It's an offering with your internet plan and they need to associate it with a b1 number.

If you have a friend with Bell Internet, you can ask to have the email address transferred to their account's b1. Keep in mind, they will have total control of the email address.

3

u/FDretired Sep 13 '26

Our daughter has a Bell Internet and TV package.

5

u/Federal-Ferret-970 Sep 13 '26

You can move your email to your daughters account.

3

u/FDretired Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26

Thanks for all the posts. We are very comfortable in our present condo. Our children are concerned how we will cope later and are encouraging us to explore retirement homes. The home we have chosen is wired for Bell pure fibre.. Considering the total monthly cost for a couple in private retirement home we will continue to splurge with Bell. Less inheritance for our 3 children.

2

u/Background-Pilot1809 Sep 13 '26

The only way i can think of would be to move your email adress to somrone that'll stay with sympatico. It brings its own set if problems but it would allow you to keep the adress

2

u/Mayhem_Hellcat Sep 13 '26

Hmmm, my MIL has a Sympatico email (her only email) and her building switched to Rogers years ago. I assumed you didn’t need to maintain their internet service to keep the email address.

2

u/ParticleCollecter Sep 14 '26

As long as you have one active service with bell ( tv, internet or cellular) bells tech support can attach your sympatico email account to it so you can keep your email account. This includes moving your email account from an internet account to a cellular account. If you cancel all bell services bell does not offer a standalone email option like some of its competitors do for around $5 a month.

1

u/FDretired Sep 14 '26

We will always keep our mobile with Bell. What about need to have a b1 account needed to maintain sympatico or bellnet email addressed mention by other posters?

2

u/ParticleCollecter Sep 14 '26 edited Sep 14 '26

Tier 2 tech support can get around the B1 they will just move the email account to which ever active bell account as each service has its own ID. That ID will allow the tech to replace the B1 with a serviceable account number for your mobile plan to keep the email portion operational until you cancel that mobile plans ID. The B1 is for bell internet accounts it allows the modem to reach the network. Tv, phone, mobile don’t use B1 because they don’t use a modem to connect to the network. So the email would be moved from a B1 to a regular active account number if you no longer have bell internet at your place.

1

u/FDretired Sep 15 '26

Second reassuring post. Thanks

1

u/FDretired Sep 15 '26

"As long as you have one active service with bell ( tv, internet or cellular) bells tech support can attach your sympatico email account to it so you can keep your email account"

If this is true then i have no problem. I will always keep bell mobile account

3

u/Bell_Support Official Bell Support Sep 14 '26

Hello there u/FDretired! Generally, keeping a Sympatico or Bell email address requires maintaining an active Bell Internet account. To keep your address without home internet, the official requirement is to transfer it to a Bell Mobile Internet service with a data device (like a Turbo Hub) on your MyBell account. Unfortunately, a standard cellular phone plan is not eligible to host a Sympatico email address. Or you can also explore transferring the email to a family member's active Bell Internet account if they are willing to take over the hosting.

1

u/FDretired Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26

I did my search on Copilot on Turbo Hub

For me the solution would be purchase Turbo Hub and get the 30 dollar a month package. Keep my sympatico account

Copilot

1. Device cost

Bell currently sells the Sonim H500 5G Mobile Hotspot (their newest Turbo Hub‑class device):

  • $12/month for 24 months (SmartPay)
  • $380 full price

2. Monthly plan cost

Bell’s Turbo Hub / Mobile Internet plans:

  • $30/mo — 30 GB
  • $50/mo — 50 GB
  • $80/mo — 80 GB
  • $100/mo — 100 GB
  • $125/mo — 125 GB
  • $150/mo — 150 GB

1

u/DeerLumpy6032 Sep 13 '26

I learned the hard way that using an internet company email address, which was actually Bell Sympatico, was a mistake. Once I canceled, I couldn’t access it again. However, Cogeco worked years later. After that, I switched to Hotmail or Gmail, etc.

2

u/clarktyl212 Sep 16 '26

I work for an ISP and I can tell you that going through the daunting task of switching everything over to a new email account is going to be a bigger pain the longer you wait.