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E-post delivery at the doorstep

Nithya Subramanian

G. Rambabu

NEW DELHI, July 23

YOUR friendly neighbourhood postman will soon deliver more than just letters and parcels; he will also drop in e-mail messages at your doorstep.

The Department of Posts (DoP) is gearing up for the launch of `E-post' -- a new service which is aimed at taking e-mail to the far-flung corners of the country and creating cyber centres within the post office.

It is planning to not only set up Internet browsing facilities within the post office premises, but also provide a new service of delivering e-mail messages.

The e-mail service will be fee-based and a user will be given a unique E-post ID. With the ID, he will be able to access the messages from any part of the country.

Sources in the department said that this new initiative has been planned to make up the revenue losses incurred due to the extensive use of e-mail. ``If e-mail has impacted the sale of letters and other postal services, we decided to counter it by launch ing our own e-mail,'' said top officials.

Just as other e-mail service providers are planning to implement user charges, the DoP also plans to adopt a similar strategy. It will, however, charge `reasonable rates'.

The postal department is basically targeting the rural market where PC penetration is low. ``In areas where the PC penetration is low, this new service will enable users to get access to the Internet at low costs,'' officials said.

Alternatively, the postman could also deliver the messages at the doorstep. ``If the e-mail ID is given to the postman, he could also hand deliver the messages,'' said sources.

Though a date for the formal launch of E-post has not been set, sources said that this would happen soon. The initial pilot project will be conducted on 200 cities and will later be extended to 20,000 cities.

Also, to make the system suitable for the rural consumer, the e-mail service will be available in several regional languages. ``Messages can be sent in any language and that will be another feature that will make our product attractive,'' said officials.

The DoP has, off late, been looking at alternative methods to boost revenues. Besides this, it is also looking at making the post office a one-stop shop for financial products and also a bill collection centre.