Belgian Post & Belgacom form secure messaging, e-Gov venture

Belgian Post has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with local telecom house Belgacom to provide secure electronic messaging, e-government applications, digital certificates and other Internet security products and services.

Both organizations hope the new venture accelerates the development and broad distribution of fully secure and authenticated electronic communications. By bringing Belgacom’s e-security infrastructure and the post’s e-government activities under one roof, they anticipate the unnamed joint venture will boost the adoption of e-government tools by citizens, private companies and public organizations.

The new venture kicks off in September. The boards of Belgian Post and Belgacom reportedly gave it the go-ahead in the last few weeks. The business will probably be headquartered in Brussels, Belgian Post officials said.

The new company will combine Belgium Post’s 18-monthold e-Services subsidiary and its PostBox service with Belgacom’s E-Trust digital certificate operation. A prestige project aimed at expanding the post’s digital footprint, PostBox is an inclusive platform for secure e-mail, e-bill presentment and payment, e-forms and e-government services. So far, it has been deployed among 5,000 users in the Belgian cities of Leuven, Marche-en-Famenne and Woluwe-St-Pierre for the last five months. A national launch is expected later this year.

First hitting market in late 1998, Belgacom’s E-Trust widgetry provides digital certificates, a set of apps based on digital certificates to secure e-mail, extranets and commercial transactions, and custom security services aimed at large enterprises.

Eric Weytjens, CEO of the post’s e-Services unit, will be CEO of the joint venture and Belgacom’s Internet Business Unit president Pascal Methens will be chairman.

Explaining the rationale behind the new concern, Weytjens said the Belgacom and the post share a secure messaging/egovernment vision. The post also expects some of its services to gain a year’s time-to-market advantage by partnering with Belgacom.

Weytjens said the fact that the Belgian Post’s Ecertio digital certificate joint venture failed to get off the ground was “not the main driver” behind the Belgacom partnership, pointing instead to market dynamics and synergy.

The new venture is expected to employ about 60-70 people, most of them coming from the post’s e-Services unit. Describing the joint venture as a “project of strategic importance,” Belgacom CEO John Goosssens said the two companies would do better promoting e-government in Belgium together.

The amount of money going into the venture and projections on when it might turn profitable were not disclosed.

Belgian Post CEO Johnny Thijs hopes the venture strengthens PostBox’ market penetration. “I believe that the post has been a pioneer with its PostBox product. Working with Belgacom will enable us to go even further,” Thijs said. “We can now offer a total package of services for citizens, companies and public authorities in what is a fast-growing market that is still lacking in universal standards.”

The new venture plans to promote PostBox by partnering with ISPs, a shift in strategy for the secure messaging service. Users will no longer need to get a special e-mail address from postbox.be and will be able to use their existing addresses to access PostBox’ registered e-mail, e-bill and e-forms services.

Since Belgacom’s Skynet unit already provides its Internet access, Skynet might be the joint venture’s first ISP partner. It remains to be seen if the Belgian Post has any better luck with digital certificates than its counterparts elsewhere. The lackluster response other postal outfits such as Consignia, Singapore Post and Deutsche Post got to their digital certificate offerings forced them to scrap them.

Apparently referring to PostBox, Weytjens claimed, “We’ll have our own volume.”