Putting Stamp on New Era of Internet Postage

Stamps.com and E-Stamp are expected to make postage history today by launching systems that let users download postage from the Internet and print it directly onto envelopes.

U.S. Postmaster General William Henderson will formally usher in a new era of PC postage this morning in Washington, with public demonstrations of six high-tech systems from four companies. The U.S. Postal Service is expected to give final approval to at least two of them, and Santa Monica-based Stamps.com and E-Stamp of San Mateo are considered the most likely candidates.

The firms have each spent more than a year devising technical systems to meet the postal service’s stringent security standards. Then they began a year of carefully monitored field tests with increasingly large groups of customers. That work set the stage for today’s introduction of the first innovation in postage technology since the postage meter was introduced in 1920.

Small businesses and home offices are expected to be the first PC postage customers, since--as with postal meters--users will have to get a license to use the services. The technology could be adopted by a wider consumer audience in the next three to five years, said Patricia Gilbert, vice president for retail at the USPS in Washington.

“We want to bring the post office to the desktop,” Gilbert said.

With the new services, customers can buy postage 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without waiting in post office lines. Stamps.com’s service requires customers to log onto the company’s Web site to purchase and print postage. E-Stamp customers must use a small hardware device to store their electronic postage, but then they can print without logging on to the Internet. Both companies plan to make money by charging a convenience fee of about 10% for their services.