AOL to get digital post office

Soon you won?t even have to queue up at the post office, thanks to the Internet.

AOL and US postage firm E-Stamp are teaming up to create a Net postal service for AOL, Compuserve, AOL.Com and AOL?s Digital City community guide customers.

AOL and E-Stamp's service will allow customers to securely purchase postage online and print "digital stamps" on envelopes, labels, or documents using their personal computer and a standard printer.

Customers will first have to install E-Stamp software. They can then buy postage by credit card, electronic fund transfer, or company cheque. The service will debut as the AOL Postage Services Centre in early 1999, confirmed AOL. The service provider is confident that digital postage will appeal to the 30 per cent of US small business members.

AOL has been trialling the service in the US, but it has yet to receive approval from the US Postal Service.

E-Stamp was the first company in the US to win approval for a digital-stamp service last year, but it isn?t the only one in the race. Postage metre company Pitney Bowes is also developing a digital postage solution, according to sources.

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