The Post Office Wants In On E-mail Service (misc)

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Read in our local paper that the USPS is getting ready to assign anyone with a street address an email address for email and online bill paying. The article (in 8/2 2000 paper) said USPS already has some features in place at a charge of $4 per month for 20 transmissions and a package for unlimited transmissions at 40 cents each ( this is more than snailmail postage). Does anyone have any more info on this?

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 03, 2000

Answers

Hi Jay, Heard this the other morning on the radio on the way to work, but of course I wanted to hear it and was in a dip so i didn't get the entire story.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), August 03, 2000.

I have heard things simeler to this in the past and nothing came of it. Their was also talk about taxing internet use but that was voted down. I am sure that the Goverment will find a way to get their greedy hand into this but I don't belive the time is right yet.

-- Mark (deadgoatman@webtv.net), August 03, 2000.

Consider this. How far do you have to go to access your server? In my case it is Clarksville, KY or Nashville, TN, both long distance calls (although I have area wide calling - reduction in long distance calls offsets the fee). Most communities had a USPS center. Now suspose each one installed a service to where access to the internet was only a local call, and they are competitive to other Internet providers??? Seems like they are missing out on a golden opportunity.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), August 04, 2000.

They just don't get it. The only thing about email they understand is that they're losing business to it. Do you want to change your email every time you change your address? What about email addresses for each person at your street address? When kids leave home? And come back again, which they do despite strenuous efforts on the part of their parents. Different addresses for business and personal. And in any case the ISP's and Yahoo and Hotmail and Deja and .... got there first.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), August 04, 2000.

There was an article about it in World Net Daily yesterday. They really do intend to try to sell you the right to use email, at least THEIR email. I see no bargain here. They intend to charge .31/each for emails. They are NOT going into the internet provider business. They are just planning to charge you for all the emails that you send through them. I don't understand the logic (since when has the Post Office had logic?) of this. If you have to provide your own internet access in the first place, why should you pay to send an email when there are literally dozens of places on line now that will give you FREE email service, you don't even have to have an account with them?

I have defended the Post Office for years as I felt a certain fondness for the system. My dad worked for them for 30 years. Every thing I had when growing up was bought with money he earned working for them. But the last few years, they just seem to have gone out of the frying pan and into the fire. This is no different.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), August 04, 2000.



There was something in the news a while back that the PO was going to offer an email service the basic point of which was putting a "postmark" on your emails. I think this could be tied in to that. If you got into a tussle with a company over whether or not you'd paid a bill online and on time, you could refer to the PO's postmark. Same idea for businesses arguing over whether or not a contract or reply had been recieved in a timely manner or at all. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it, since emails have a lot of source information in their full headers, but if it was set up to work something like certified surface mail, I can see where it would be handy. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), August 04, 2000.

First, the rumor the Post Office had introduced legislation to charge a five cent surcharge on every e-mail was just that - a rumor.

Second, here is the full text of the article as it appeared in The Tennessean:

U.S. Postal Service testing variety of e-services

Washington (AP) - Uncle San wants YOU@USPS.COM.

Fearing that e-mail and on-line bill paying could take a fatal bite out of first-class mail, U.S. Postal Service officials are testing e- services for Americans, including one that would assign virtually everbody an e-mail address.

The new service, postal officials say, could notify customers by e- mail about an incoming bill or package, which they could then reroute to another address.

Another plan would allow customers to send e-mails to a post office to be printed and delivered as first-class mail, much like a service now provided by a private company.

A third program, already available, lets customers pay bills online through the Postal Service's Web site.

Postal Service spokeswoman Sue Brennan called the projects "a way for customers to choose how they want to get their correspondence."

The post office predicts that in 2003, first-class mail, now a $35 billion business and its top revenue-producing service, will begin an unprecedented decline at the hands of booming e-mail and online billing service.

Under its own online bill system, the Postal Service charges customers $6 per month to send 20 electronic transactions, or $2 per month and 40 cents apiece for unlimited transactions.

The e-mail-to-paper system would cost about 41 cents per message - eight cents more than current 33-cent postage.

Under the e-mailbox proposal, virtually every American would be assigned a free e-mail address corresponding to his or her street address. Customers could simply link the service to any present e- mail address they have, or opt for a special online postal box.

My prediction - too little way too late.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), August 05, 2000.


To all interested-

I was sent the following and asked to pass it on, guess this is a ggod place to do that.

begn copy>> Subject: Fed Bill 602P E-mail charge

I guess the warnings were true. Federal Bill 602P 5-cents per E-mail Sent It figures! No more free E-mail! We knew this was coming!!

Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent charge on every delivered E-mail. Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online and continue using E-mail. The last few months have revealed an alarming trend in the Government of the United States attempting to quietly push through legislation that will affect our use of the Internet.

Under proposed legislation, the US Postal Service will be attempting To bill E-mail users out of "alternative postage fees."

Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent surcharge on every E-mail delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at source. The consumer would then be billed in turn by the ISP. Washington DC lawyer Richard Stepp is working without pay to prevent this legislation from becoming law. The US Postal Service is claiming lost revenue, due to the proliferation of E-mail, is costing nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have noticed their recent ad campaign:

"There is nothing like a letter."

Since the average person received about 10 pieces of E-mail per day in 1998, the cost of the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents a day-or over $180 per year -- above and beyond their regular Internet costs. Note that this would be money paid directly to the US Postal Service for a service they do not even provide.

The whole point of the Internet is democracy and noninterference. You are already paying an exorbitant price for snail mail because of bureaucratic efficiency. It currently takes up to 6 days for a letter to be delivered from coast to coast. If the US Postal Service is allowed to tinker with E-mail, it will mark the end of the "free" Internet in the United States. One congressional representative, Tony Schnell (R) has even suggested a "$20-$40 per month surcharge on all Internet service" above and beyond the governments proposed E-mail charges. Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story the only exception being the Washingtonian - which called the idea of E-mail surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come" (March 6th, 1999 Editorial).

Do not sit by and watch your freedom erode away! Send this e-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and relatives to write their congressional representative to say "NO" to Bill 602P.

It will only take a few moments of your time and could very well be instrumental in killing a bill we do not want.>> end copy.

-- Ima Gardener (ima@gardener.com), August 05, 2000.


Ima:

Tell ya' what I'm gonna do. I will give you $10,000 if you can produce an official copy of this said bill. I'm not kidding. I'm good for it. Why am I so confident? As part of my duties at the Air Force Logistics Command Comptroller Office I oversaw the Congressional Library. Through doing it I became familiar with the Congressional legislative process. Any bill introduced in the House is followed by -HR. Any bill introduced in the Sentate is followed by -S. There is no -P following any legislation. Normally this item includes a reference to a particular legislator. Tried to look him up. No one even remotely similar has ever served in the legislature. It is a flat out rumor which has legs. Never happened. USPS swears they have no interest in taxing e-mails. Go to www.usps.com. There once was an official statement on this. Look at it this way. Any Congressional person supporting such a bill, even if it were real, wouldn't be reelected. This rumor needs to DIE!!!

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), August 05, 2000.


To read the Post Offices press replease on an e-mail surcharge go to www.usps.com, choose the option for graphics, then press releases, then archives, then scroll down to the one for May 21, 1999, Release #99-045.

From what I can tell there is nothing sinister about this. The Post Office is just offering other services. Give you can example, you live in Maine and need to get in quick contact with someone in California who doesn't have access to a phone. You can send a snail mail letter for $.33 which will take several days or e-mail their local post office who will deliver it probably the next day for $.44. Next day delivery by the package concept would cost considerably more. I don't envy USPS in trying to implement the concept.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), August 06, 2000.



Ken, The article you listed was the same one that I read in The Huntsville Times and yuo may be right , USPS may just be offering their services. Also, I had the opportunity to speak to a freind who has worked with the P.O. and his feeling is that the net is safe from a "takeover" but as you pointed out the USPS has a fine network in place that could complement the net for a fee. He compared it to bulk and first class ( USPS being the first class). Thanks for taking me out of the box for a good look.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 07, 2000.

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