According to another blog post, you can still "switch to it" for the next 30 days. So maybe sign up for paid and then immediately switch to free?

http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2012/12/changes-to-goo...

http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2... I started the trial on or after December 6, 2012. You cannot downgrade to the free edition, but you have the option to purchase the product or to cancel your account.

Be glad it came when it did. It would suck to just get all setup then find out the service has been deprecated.

For everyone with an account, I suggest looking for an alternative soon.

Yerp, we signed up about a month ago and had pretty much just settled in over the past week. Hooray.

Outlook.com