The impact of the development of electronic mail on postal markets

The European Commission, DG XIII, has published a call for proposals for a study entitled "The impact of the development of electronic mail on postal markets". The aim of the study is to assist the Commission in understanding the present and future impact of the development o...

The European Commission, DG XIII, has published a call for proposals for a study entitled "The impact of the development of electronic mail on postal markets".

The aim of the study is to assist the Commission in understanding the present and future impact of the development of electronic mail and other types of new advanced services such as EDI - Electronic Data Interchange - on the postal markets.

The study will review the developments of part or whole electronic mail systems and assess the likely impact of substitution technologies on traditional mail patterns and the potential for new postal services. It should provide a basis of reference which will help the medium-term work of the Commission in proposing measures aimed at implementing a new European postal framework with impacts inter alia at the level of services offered and new services, quality of services, technical standardization required and European industry promotion.

Tasks to be undertaken in this study include, primarily, research which must be done in order to ensure that:

- The study identifies the key technologies involved both currently and anticipated in the future. The potential for loss of traffic currently handled by the public operators in the EU should be forecast and ranges of uncertainty given;
- The study examines the potential for hybrid mail systems to inhibit this potential loss of traffic or for it to replace the use of existing postal services;
- The study examines the potential impact of electronic messaging systems on the present range of product (supply) and to the different customers' sectors (demand).
Tender documentation is available from:

European Commission
Directorate-General for Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research
DG XIII/A
Mr. P. Picard
200 rue de la Loi (BU-9 5/176)
B-1049 Brussels
Tel. [phone]; Fax [phone]

Requests for the terms of reference for the studies may be made by facsimile or letter. When requests are made by facsimile, they must be confirmed by letter.