E-COM

E-COM, short for Electronic Computer Originated Mail, was a hybrid mail process used from 1982 to 1985 by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to print electronically originated mail, and deliver it in envelopes to customers within two days of transmission.

"E-com" redirects here. For electronic commerce, see E-commerce. For other uses, see ECOM (disambiguation).

Description

The E-COM service allowed customers to transmit messages of up to two pages from their own computers, via telecommunication lines, to one or more of 25 serving post offices (SPOs) located in the following cities: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Richmond, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. After an electronic message was received by an SPO, it was processed and sorted by ZIP Code, then printed on letter-size bond paper, folded, and sealed in an envelope printed with a blue E-COM logo. In order to be eligible for the service, customers were required to send a minimum of 200 messages per transmission.[1][2][3][4][5]

History

USPS began looking into electronic mail in 1977.[6] E-COM was originally proposed on September 8, 1978, and service was expected to begin by December of that year. The proposal was caught up in a two-year regulatory dispute, and a modified version of the E-COM service as recommended by the Postal Rate Commission was approved on August 15, 1980, by the Postal Service Board of Governors.[7]

E-COM services began on January 4, 1982, and the original rates were 26 cents for the first page plus 2 cents for the second page for each transmission. In addition, there was an annual fee of $50 for the service. During its inaugural year of service, 3.2 million E-COM messages were sent, and more than 600 customers submitted applications for the service. Federal law prohibits the USPS from subsidizing a mail class by overcharging the users of other mail classes; however, E-COM was heavily subsidized from its introduction. During its first year of operation, the USPS lost $5.25 per letter. The House Government Operations Committee indicated that "The Postal Service deliberately manipulates the release of information about E-COM in order to make E-COM appear to be more successful than it really is."[6][8]

On June 18-21, 1982, the US Congress’ Joint Subcommittee on Economic Goals and Intergovernmental policy, held a hearing on the future of mail delivery in the United States, and whether the US Postal Service should be prevented from competing with the numerous commercial electronic mail providers, then in operation.[9]

Subsequent to this, there were difficulties in securing approval for a competitive and profitable rate for the service,[1] and beginning in June 1984 the Postal Service started trying to sell the E-COM service to a private firm. Having not received offers that were financially attractive enough to be accepted, Postmaster General Paul Carlin notified the board of governors at the June 3, 1985, meeting that the postal service would request through the Postal Rate Commission the authority to close down the operation as soon as possible. The E-COM service was officially discontinued on September 2, 1985.[10]

Another service, INTELPOST,[11] the Postal Service's international electronic mail venture beginning in 1980 which provided a high-speed facsimile copy service between continents and was also shut down in the mid 1980s.[8]

Legacy

The abbreviation E-COM resulted in Electronics journal publishing a headline in June 1979 reading “Postal Service pushes ahead with E-mail”. This is the first known usage of the term E-mail.[12][13]

See also

References
Notes
  1. USPS Historian (July 2008). "E-COM, Electronic Computer Originated Mail" (PDF).
  2. Daly, Jimmy. "The Postal Service's 30-Year Relationship with Email". FedTech. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  3. "Post Office Embraces "Electronic Mail" and E-COM". Ghosts of DC. 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  4. "The Post Office Almost Delivered Your First E-Mail". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  5. "Implications of Electronic Mail and Message Systems for the U.S. Postal Service" (PDF). OTA. August 1982.
  6. "THE LAST DINOSAUR: THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE". Archived from the original on 2000-08-18.
  7. "E-COM service commences January 4, 1982". Memo to Mailers. Vol 16 No 12. January 1982.
  8. "Postal Service Electronic Mail: The Price Isn't Right". Washington: House Government Operations Committee. October 1, 1982. p3
  9. "The future of mail delivery in the United States" (PDF). US Congress- Joins Economic Committee. Jun 1982.
  10. Subcommittee, United States Congress House Committee on Government Operations Government Information, Justice, and Agriculture (1986). Oversight of Postal Service Electronic Mail and Centralized Delivery Programs: Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-ninth Congress, First Session, June 10, 1985. U.S. Government Printing Office.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. Raag, H. (1980-01-01). The INTELPOST system. Bibcode:1980coss.conf..534R.
  12. "email noun earlier than 1979". Oxford English Dictionary. 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  13. Ohlheiser, Abby (2015-07-28). "Why the first use of the word 'e-mail' may be lost forever". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
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