Ceska Posta goes on-line with registered mail service
Ceska Posta was to make available to the public on Saturday an electronic alternative to ordinary registered mail using technology it has largely developed itself.
Although its benefits include faster, direct delivery, the new electronic mail program can only work between senders and receivers who are both signed up for the service. The cost of a basic Registered Electronic Mail (REP) package starts at Kc 600 per year and includes a monthly 100-megabyte limit of transferred data, or around 1,800 registered e-mails per month.
REP will allow the delivery of e-mails or data packages through the post office network with an official confirmation that it arrived at its final destination. Ceska Posta is the only authorized provider of this service in the country so far.
“REP is no different from regular registered mail when the delivery service is responsible for bringing the shipment to its final destination,” said the post office’s project chief Antonin Ambroz. The sender is provided with the same assurance that the delivery has arrived, a must for many official transactions in the Czech Republic that require proof of receipt.
The idea of electronic registered mail is not new. Ceska Posta was inspired by comparable systems of electronic data or mail delivery developed by France’s La Poste and the Canada Post Group Corp. One of the world’s largest shipping companies, UPS (United Parcel Service), also offers the service, said Ambroz, but he stressed that the Czech system is unique among its counterparts elsewhere.
User friendly
REP operates on a client-server basis. A special software application is provided that works on most platforms like MS Windows 98/2000/XP, Mac OS or Linux, and no special hardware or other technical equipment is needed to use the technology. Messages or data are sent to Ceska Posta’s server using personal codes and an electronic signature (now issued by various authorized companies). Ceska Posta then notifies the receiver that his or her mail is ready to be picked up. Software developer ICZ provided coding and encryption for the system, and Sybase provided the application server.
ICZ also considered allowing notification to be sent via SMS to clients’ mobile phones, but reconsidered it because of the possible increased cost of sending them. “Some operators are halting free SMS access, so this would not work in the future,” said Milan Kasan, key account manager at ICZ.
The product was originally offered for testing to about 50 users, mostly health insurance companies and health care facilities that send data on floppy disks or CDs through regular mail.
