United Internet withdraws from De-Mail
After Telekom, the second major provider is also saying goodbye to De-Mail.
(Image: Shutter z/Shutterstock.com)
- Tim Gerber
United Internet has announced that it will discontinue its De-Mail services within a year. Customers of its brands 1&1, GMX and WEB.DE are currently being notified of the termination of their De-Mail contracts in an e-mail. Users will therefore have sufficient time to back up their data.
The move had been expected for some time. After Deutsche Telekom discontinued the service for its customers last summer, the German government also announced that federal authorities would no longer be obliged to open De-Mail accounts.
Unlike Telekom, which offered the service free of charge, United Internet charged for certain services such as sender confirmation mail. The sender confirmation is needed, for example, to replace the written form required in court proceedings. However, with the electronic mailbox for citizens and organizations (eBO) and the free justice portal, the German government itself has created a free alternative to De-Mail for administrative and court proceedings, thereby removing the ground from the De-Mail service business. (For the free alternatives to De-Mail, see c't 7/2024, p. 158).
Only two providers left
The fact that the service, which is not technically very different from the zoo of "special" electronic mailboxes for lawyers, notaries, tax consultants, authorities and courts, has not been able to establish itself is probably largely due to the inconsistency of the legislators. Instead of all professional systems, they could have simply prescribed De-Mail, which was implemented by law much earlier, and thus created a market-based infrastructure for communication services beyond traditional post. This is because De-Mail can replace registered mail, return receipts and delivery certificates electronically.
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Following the withdrawal of 1&1, there are now only two smaller providers left that offer rather expensive De-Mail services that are more tailored to commercial users. As even federal authorities will soon no longer need these, the complete end of the service is likely to be sealed.
(tig)
