n605  2017  27 Jul 76
THE PUBLIC CONCERN: MAIL
Consumer column
By KAY MILLS
(c) 1976, Newhouse News Service
    WASHINGTON - The mailman of the future may be a computer delivering
electronic bills and business messages - perhaps even personal
letters - over data networks to stations around the country.
    The beginning stages of development of electronic funds transfer
(EFT) systems and digital data networks between businesses foreshadow
this futuristic ''electronic mail'' concept, according to a report
prepared for the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy
(OTP) by Arthur D. Little, Inc.
    ''About two-thirds of all first-class mail, and 35 per cent of
all mail, is devoted to messages concerned with transactions - orders,
invoices, bills and payments,'' the firm told OTP in a report titled,
''Telecommunications and Society, 1976-1991.''
    ''EFT techniques can impact a very significant fraction of this
mail by making possible the conduct of such transactions through
electronic rather than hard-copy messages.''
    The report indicated that ultimately perhaps 30 per cent or more
of all first-class transaction mail may be handled by EFT techniques.
Within a few years, the report added, it is conceivable some firm
may market for under $300 printer terminals which can be connected
to home telephone lines, to receive and transmit personal and business
correspondence.
    The study does not advocate any particular course for electronic
mail development but instead outlines possible scenarios which
that development might follow. It discusses what might happen,
for example, if the U.S. Postal Service fights competition from
electronic firms, using the protection the law grants it now as a
monopoly service for first class mail, or if the Postal Service
joins the potential competition in cooperative ventures.
    But there are drawbacks - concern for letter carriers' jobs and for
the possible loss of privacy of people's personal mail. Heretofore,
the report said, telecommunications gains have been of ''major net
social benefit,'' replacing older, less efficient service. ''This
may not continue to be the case,'' the study said.
    The National Association of Letter Carriers is concerned that
if the U.S. Postal Service loses the letter business to electronic
transmissions, rates for the rest of mail delivery - newspapers,
circulars, magazines - will be driven so high those media, too,
will find alternate delivery means.
    James H. Rademacher, president of the Letter Carriers, says he's
as concerned about another facet of the plunge toward electronic
mail. He thinks advocates of that system are ''unwittingly falling
into the hands of a subversive movement in this country which
seeks to destroy the most important facts about mail: its security,
sanctity and personalness.''
    If Americans reach the day when they can turn on the television
set in their living room and read a letter from mother in California,
Rademacher says, they must be assured that the government has
created protections so that everyone else isn't reading that letter,
too.
    For its part, the Postal Service has awarded a two-year $2.2
million contract to RCA's Government Communications Systems Division
in Camden, N.J., to determine the technical and economic aspects of
an electronic message system. A spokesman added that the Postal
Service is already involved with electronic mail to the extent
that it currently delivers Western Union mailgrams.
JG     END MILLS 7-27
 
 
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