YOU can now send an e-mail to anyone in the world鈥攅ven if they don鈥檛
own a computer. Thanks to a link-up between the Royal Mail, Britain鈥檚 postal
service, and the software giant Microsoft, you just visit their website, leave
your note and off it goes. You don鈥檛 even need to buy a stamp.
The new service, RelayOne, allows Internet users to send electronic mail from
a Microsoft-run website to a Royal Mail office in London. All the sender needs
is a computer, an Internet connection and a browser. The Royal Mail prints out
the document on A4 paper and delivers it. A one-page letter to any address in
the world costs 拢1.50.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the perfect marriage between people who have access to the Internet and
people who don鈥檛 have access,鈥� says Matthew Eastley, a spokesman for the Royal
Mail.
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The website also allows you to send any document up to 50 pages long for
拢5 if it can be read by Windows-compatible software, according to
Microsoft鈥檚 RelayOne programme manager, Roland Dunn.
鈥淚t鈥檚 basically idiot-proof,鈥� says Ruth Bradshaw, a spokeswoman for
Microsoft. 鈥淎nd it鈥檒l be delivered within 24 hours.鈥� You pay for the service by
credit card. Both your financial transaction and the electronic document are
encrypted.