I should know this but alas I’m tech challenged. Many years ago, back in the Stone Age, I signed up for gaspdial up internet with AT&T. We have since switched to internet service via Dish but I have kept paying the $25 monthly for dial up since my email is an AT&T email and I was worried I’d have to surrender it.
Question for those who know…
Can I cancel my dial up but keep my AT&T email address? Or will I lose it? 
I had no idea you could still pay for dial-up.
But according to the fine print here, you should be able to. (I also googled and several people confirmed that the dial-up email stayed active)
https://home.secureapp.att.net/csbellsouth/s/s.dll?spage=cg/legal/ytermswf.htm
It is actually an yahoo email account. You should be able to access via mail.yahoo.com and log in with your email address.
I still use an AOL address as my main email address and I haven’t paid for AOL since the days of dial up.
Cancel that ATT&T account today! Stop any payments and do whatever to cancel your account- online most likely. People have all sorts of email addresses from places they no longer use. You do lose your internet/cable/phone company provider email address and your college email address after a period of time. But some can be kept forever.
Many/most of us parents here will remember all of those CD’s that came in the mail to entice us to use various companies internet services. Could have covered a wall or two with them.
Why don’t you get a gmail account. Then send your new email to everyone in your address book. Everyone.
BTW…we have ATT also…and have two email addresses through them…at no charge. We have DSL through Frontier which was ATT.
Heavily second thumper’s advice.
I finally got my parents to switch to gmail after nearly 2 decades of using their AOL emails. They don’t know why they didn’t switch earlier. :-w
I still have my aol email address. TBH…I’m not a fan of gmail. But I don’t pay a dime for my aol email. Not a dime.
And they stopped dial up…a LONG time ago.
You don’t need to give up your ATT email address. It is through yahoo now, as was pointed out. Call ATT and stop paying for the dialup. You can access your ATT email account on webmail through yahoo (I have a Bellsouth account) and set it up at home through your Outlook, if you use that.
They like gmail because there’s almost no spam. AOL is notorious for spam 
Gmail is not the only one with good spam filters.
What is there not to like about Gmail?
Huh. Makes me wonder if my dad is paying for dial up. He has an AT&T address that seems to be on Yahoo, and it is part of a bundled cable-internet package. I’ve never seen the bill, though.
Oh, and I’m one who hates Gmail. The way it does threads is confusing.
I personally don’t like the way gmail “organizes” my emails, responses, etc.
I’m sure I could get used to it. @intparent we have Internet through Frontier, which used to be ATT. It is NOT dial up!
gmail doesn’t organize your emails or how it does threads, it is your email software that’s doing it. It is an option you can set.
If folks access gmail via its webmail portal, that is where it does the weird mail organizing. I personally don’t care and don’t mind it. It is just that gmail is not the only service with awesome spam filters.
Maybe I am strange, but I do like the organizer. It puts all marketing emails to one folder.
For,the record…AOL sends spam to my spam folder…and they do a good job of picking it up. Occasionally they send things I need there too…but I check and delete that folder every day.
I have several different e-mail addresses. I have Comcast for internet, and I use that e-mail address for family, friends, and my banking information. We had AT&T several years ago and, even after we canceled it, I’ve continued using it as my mid-level junk e-mail account. My gmail account is totally for junk e-mail which I look at and clear once or twice per month. My work e-mail is used strictly for work.
Thanks all for the helpful feedback! Was just petrified I’d lose my email address if I cancelled but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I guess I can now buy a nice bottle of wine every month with the $25 I will save 