Just get your own domain, then you keep your e-mail address forever, and if you don't like what your provider is charging you, you take your address and move it to a different service.

Never rely on an ISP (comcast, time warner, AOL, etc.) to let you keep your address. They have no incentive to do so.

You can get a domain for under $10/year from just about any domain registrar. I use namesecure.com, but there are a million others out there.

Then you just need an e-mail provider. I use fastmail.fm because it's reliable, has great support and has an amazingly powerful interface that does everything I want. The downsides are that it's not the cheapest and it's geeky.

If you want cheap and simple, try the free Google Apps service for your domain. Their basic free service gives you a customized version of gmail (and their calendar, docs, and other services) that runs on your own domain. You can give free addresses to other people, too. For example, if you register the domain name "wharveyfamily.com" you can give out "[email protected]" to Mom, "[email protected]" to Dad, etc.

It does require a little technical knowledge to set up, since you have to set the MX records in your DNS settings to point to gmail's servers. If that sounds like gibberish to you, get a tech-savvy friend to help you get set up. It'll take 10 minutes, and then you're good to go.

And once it's set up, using Google Apps for your domain is just like using gmail, google calendar, etc., except it's your own address, so if Google's service ever goes downhill (or they start charging more than you want to pay) you can take your address elsewhere.