Text messages to replace stamps in Sweden

A similar system is set for launch in Denmark on April 1st allowing users to send a text message, prompting a special code to be sent back.

The code is then written down on the letter and serves as proof of the postage having been paid, the Sydsvenskan newspaper reports.

“We’re very interested and are just now looking into a solution,” Anders Åsberg, heard of marketing and development with Swedish postal service Posten AB.

Åsberg added that no date has been set to introduce the service in Sweden, but said it wouldn’t be before the summer.

The postal services in both Sweden and Denmark are convinced that people will continue to send letters, despite the rise in other forms of communication, and paying postage by mobile phone is seen as a way of making the process easier.

The system under consideration in Sweden would allow users to use codes retrieved via text message for sending letters and parcels weighing up to two kilogrammes.

According to Åsberg, the risk of forged codes is no greater than it is with traditional stamps, as both must eventually be read by postal service scanners.

He also said there were no plans to raise postal rates in Sweden when the text message postage service is introduced.