Question about Outlook Express

Much like hotmail to outlook, you are upgrading all of MSN messenger to skype. Well, that's terrific, but THERE IS NO BROADBAND where I live. So if I don't voluntarily upgrade to skype, do I lose all of Messenger contacts suddenly? Why are you restricting use something to only people living in areas that have Broadband? So if I don't sign into skype in the first year are all of my contacts gone? How does this work?

Like I said, I have no way to use SKype. I am on a 14.4 connection because the phone lines up the mountain are old, and no companies have seen fit to run new lines, so no cable TV, Satellite internet and TV is not an option because, Oh! Mountain's in the way! There is no 3G or 4G or LTE here. There is normal cell phones (barely).
So seriously, what is someone like me supposed to do with this?

The important question is this: Since you are stripping our ability to use MSN, how long will my contacts be preserved since I have no way of using Skype?

With the merger on March 15th of MSN and Skype, what do people like myself who DO NOT want Skype but wish to keep our good ole' relible MSN Messenger do?  As a "baby boomer" I have certain things that I think that should be left SIMPLE.  I know that technology has come a long way, but, if you ask a log of my age group, "new & improved" is NOT always better.  I don't own an Ipad, or a "smart" phone and have no intentions of doing so.  I just want to be able to talk to my grandchilden through messenger after school.  Microsoft has already forced me to go from my good old reliable Windows XP to 7 (which by the way, still doesn't have all the "bugs" worked out of it) and now they are going to end up forcing all of us to go to Windows 8 eventually.  Can we not just keep one small thing simple and have the option to stay with MSN Messenger?  PLEASE!