BT to shift customers from Yahoo to BT Mail

All BT customers would be shifted to a new system from next month after a decade on Yahoo! email.

BT customers using Yahoo! service had been complaining since February that hackers were repeatedly taking control of accounts and using them send spam emails.

According to a report in the The Telegraph, in March, an investigation had been launched by the two companies which, however,  failed to stop  security breaches on BT's online forums.

Yesterday BT announced it would start shifting  accounts from Yahoo! within weeks. At the same time it noted, the new system would ''feature in-built anti-virus and anti-spam solutions''.

According to Nick Wong, director of online for BT's consumer division, BT would be switching customers' email over BT Mail, which would include the features and functions they expected from a modern email service.

He said the company would be keeping its customers fully informed about what changes to expect and when they would be able to enjoy the new services.

All email folders would be moved over and customers would retain their email address, although they might be prompted to change their password, BT said.

In addition to the loss of 6 million email accounts, at one go. Yahoo! would lose a chunk of traffic to its homepage, as with the end of the partnership the BT Yahoo portal would also mean the closure of the BT Yahoo! portal website.

Wong said that the company would be switching customers' email over to BT Mail, which would include the features and functions they expected from a modern email service, including in-built anti-virus and anti-spam solutions, the reporty said.

The move would come as a blow to Yahoo, which would lose a chunk of visitors to its homepage when the new BT.com arrived.

The new BT Mail would be powered by a Californian company named Critical Path.