Danish 'text-a-stamp' postal service to launch

From April, the Danish postal service will introduce the Mobile Postal Service, which will revolutionise the way how the snail mail system will work, by allowing letter senders to text for a stamp replacement.

For standard letters, users will be able to send a text message to receive a code to write on the envelope, removing the need to buy postal stamps and do away with the inconvenience of taking away precious time in our increasingly busy, technologically driven lives.

The code will be charged to the mobile device user, and will cost around 70 cents (just under £1), which is the current price of a stamp plus the cost of the text message. It must also be used within 7 days of purchase.

The Generation Y are the least likely users of the traditional snail mail postal system, with technologically driven means taking priority over others. It may encourage younger users to use the postal system, but the lack of instant communications will again hamper the efforts of reaching out to the younger, more impatient generation.

It seems the only reason the younger generations would use the postal system, in my experience, is for receiving bills and letters, naturally, but sending items larger than a personal letter.

It is rare for me to go to the post office, and when I do it's to exchange currency or send items back of larger quantity, such as phones and gadgets I am not pleased with and hoping for a return. Yet not is all lost, with a mutual friend taking a year out in France to study in an exchange programme, regularly sending letters back to England in a Bronte-style romanticist effort to rekindle the love for personal letter writing.

Sweden, however, is reported to be considering using the system for larger items weighing up to 2kg in weight.

It's just not my preferred method of communication, along with an entire generation of younger people.

When was the last time you sent a letter?