UK snail-mail takes on email
Britain’s Royal Mail snail mail is going head-on with instant Internet email.
Called SmartStamp, it’s a "digital-stamp service that allows businesses to design and print personalised postage marks," says a Silicon.com report here.
"Although the software is provided free, businesses subscribe to the service for £4.99 a month (about $10) or £49.99 (about $100) a year and credit their account for postage – as companies currently do with franking machines," says the story. "When the user is ready to pay, they connect to the internet and, by submitting their order, the cost of the stamps printed is deducted from their account."
Digital franks aren’t the same as traditional stamps and businesses can use their own logos, designs, message or photos whereas on normal UK stamps, no living person can appear except the Queen.
A Royal Mail spokeswoman for would’nt reveal the cost of the project and said that while a number of businesses have been testing the service, it is "too early to put a number on subscribers," the story adds.
