> What we need first, is a government mandate that your email address (like a phone number) must be allowed easy transfer to other providers. As long as Google owns the Gmail.com domain, they will be able to hold the entire network hostage.

A mandate is perhaps heavy handed, but a statement that the government will no longer communicate via e-mail and only via protocol X would be appropriate.

As for the email transfer... that would certainly have to be a new protocol. There is no mechanism to do anything of the sort today. the @... part literally means @ that server.