German Postal System to Offer E-Mail Services

Looking for ways to keep from losing its business to cyberspace, the German postal system is planning to offer e-mail services to customers with and without Internet access. Deutsche Post Chairman Klaus Zumwinkel said the system would begin offering free e-mail addresses to private customers by the end of June. Deutsche Post--which is planning an initial stock offering in November--intends to build up an e-mail center where messages can be accessed via any Internet provider. “We want to bind private customers to us, even in this Electronic Age,” he said. Starting next month, the post office also plans to offer a service allowing e-mails to be printed out and delivered with the next day’s regular mail. “They send us e-mails that we deliver as letters, such as when the recipient doesn’t have Internet access,” he said.