Spark is to bring the mailboxes of its Xtra email service customers on shore, transferring them from Yahoo! to local email service provider SMX, which operates from a Spark data centre.
Spark has contacted customers to seek their permission for the move and says it plans to make the transition over a three month period from January next year. Customer email addresses will not change and stored emails will be retained. The move follows the shift of 11,000 Spark business mailboxes to SMX in 2015.
Spark has given no clear reason for the move. Spark Home, Mobile and Business CEO, Jason Paris, said only: “After a positive nine year relationship with Yahoo, we have decided to transition our email service to SMX, a New Zealand based provider. We know that email is a critically important service to our customers and we are dedicated to making this transition as seamless as possible for our users.”
He added: “SMX is one of the leading cloud email providers in New Zealand and we are confident in their ability to bring customers’ email data back home, safely and securely. Partnering with SMX will allow us to move all of our customers’ valuable email data back to New Zealand and host it locally in our own state-of-the-art Takanini data centre.”
In the information provided on its website, in answer to the question “Why are we bringing email home?” Spark says only “Spark is committed to New Zealand and New Zealanders. So, after nine successful years with Yahoo we’ve chosen to partner with New Zealand’s leading email security company, SMX, to protect, manage and store your email right here in New Zealand.”
Spark requires customers to give their permission by 30 November and as an incentive will enter all those that do so before 17 October into a daily draw to win $100 Prezzy cards.