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.
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
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
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Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
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Charlotte
Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...
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Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...
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Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
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Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...
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Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
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Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
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Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...
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Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
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Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures r ...
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Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
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San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
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Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
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Washington, DC
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. After an electronic message was received by an SPO, it was processed and sorted by ZIP Code, then printed on letter-sizebond 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.
History
USPS began looking into
electronic mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
in 1977. 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.
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.""Postal Service Electronic Mail: The Price Isn't Right". Washington: House Government Operations Committee. October 1, 1982. p3
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.
Subsequent to this, there were difficulties in securing approval for a competitive and profitable rate for the service, 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 GeneralPaul 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.
Another service, INTELPOST, 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.
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
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...