a212  0924  19 Jun 76
AM-Electronic Mail, Bjt two takes, 480-660
By JEFFREY MILLS
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The Postal Service is taking the first steps
toward establishing an electronic mail system that promises overnight
delivery of letters at a price no higher than current rates.
    The mail agency has signed a $2.2 million contract with the RCA
Corp. to study what alternatives are available to the Postal Service
in the area of computerized message systems.
    ''Weknow it is technologically feasible to have a national
electronic message service. We could do it today,'' said Ralph
Marcotte, Postal Service program manager for the RCA contract.
    ''The question we want answered now is whether there is a national
market for it,'' he said in an interview.
    ''The chances are very good that the study will come up with at
least one alternative that is economically feasible and that would be
accepted by the public,'' he said.
    Technology exists to use leased lines, facsimile devices,
communications satellites and other devices to send messages
electronically, he said.
    One possible application is for the Postal Service to establish
''electronic mail kiosks'' at such places as shopping centers. A
person could enter a message written in block letters into a machine
equipped with optical character readers that could convert the message
into digital form.
    The message then could be transmitted to a Postal Service receiving
unit near the addressee. A computer printout of the message could be
delivered with the next day's mail.
    Another possibility is for a business to link its own computer
electronically with that of the nearest Postal Service message
station. ''His computer would talk to our computer and then our's
would send the message electronically,'' Marcotte said.
    The message could be received by computer by the addressee or a
printout could be delivered conventionally.
    ''The cost of sending a one-page business document would be as low
as a nickel per page, not including any delivery costs,'' he said.
    Marcotte said the chances appear good for delivering an electronic
letter for the same or less than the current 13-cent price of a
first-class letter.
    One potential problem with electronic mail is that private companies
now entering the field of electronic message systems may complain
about competition from the government.
    Marcotte said systems run by private enterprise ''would tend to go
along routes of high profitability and high usage'' while the Postal
Service would try to serve all areas of the country.
    Officials point out that the Postal Service already has a nationwide
delivery network, an asset that companies do not have.
    An electronic system would enable the Postal Service to save
considerable mail handling. The Postal Service now employs about
700,000 workers, nearly 1 per cent of the American labor force, in
moving the mails.
    MORE
    
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a213  0928  19 Jun 76
AM-Electronic Mail, 1st add, 180
WASHINGTON: mails.
    Postal officials say another possible advantage to the agency would
be that electronic mail could recover business that the Postal
Service has been losing in recent years. Use of the mail has been
declining, partly because of rising mail rates and partly because of
the increasing use of privately owned electronic communications at the
expense of the U.S. mail.
    The Postal Service could begin offering an electronic mail service
''as soon as three years from now if everything goes right,'' Marcotte
said.
    ''We have the obvious option of growing in steps as demand for the
service grows. We could start with leased lines and then later go to
satellites, for example,'' he said.
    Marcotte said a possible ''second generation'' is for people to buy
a ''black box'' to receive mail electronically in his own home. This
is not feasible yet, he said.
    Marcotte said electronic mail ''would be a supplement to the present
first-class mail and eventually might be a substitute.'' He concedes
that this ''would be a rather radical departure from the present
postal system. It certainly would change our image.''
    
1228pED 06-19
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