Bell cutting off smtp relay for 1500 companies

Hypertech, a local hosting company offering colocation services, was bought recently by Bell Canada. Acquisition by a much larger company is often seen as a positive sign on the customer side, since it means larger resources available on hand, such as more support staff, or perhaps infrastructure upgrades.

In Hypertech’s case though, it isn’t all good news. Bell is cutting off smtp relay, which means no outside communication for the 1500 companies colocated at the Hypertech data centers. Due to spam issues, and lack of deliverability expertise, Bell is choosing the most obvious (but very limited) solution of cutting off the service, and is now asking instead companies to pay extra to get smtp relay back.

For most of the ex-Hypertech companies, it’s a surprising measure that they didn’t expect. You can’t send anymore customer or sales emails, which is a basic need, or for web companies running a platform, send confirmation messages, “forgotten password” emails, and many other messages. The paradox is that those small businesses effectively choose a small company like Hypertech since it could provide those emails services that huge companies like Bell couldn’t do.

lf you are running a web company, think hard of contingency measures so you don’t get stuck in situations like this!