Stamp of approval
People in Sweden will be able to pay for postage using their mobile phone instead of buying stamps in the future.
The idea is that people will be able to send a text message and receive a special code, which they can then write on their envelope or parcel and will serve as proof of postage having been paid, according to The Sydsvenskan newspaper via The Local.
However, Denmark will try out the new system on 1 April, before Sweden. It seems to be a novel mixture of old-school writing with ‘new' technology and a precursor to NFC, which many predict will completely change the way people pay for goods and services.
Anders Åsberg, heard of marketing and development with Swedish postal service Posten AB, reportedly said: "We're very interested and are just now looking into a solution."
He believes the new system will not be rolled out before the summer.
Sweden and Denmark's postal service reportedly reckon that people will continue to send letters despite being able to communicate in more ways than ever using smartphones and therefore have decided to make paying postage easier by mobile.
Sweden is considering a system that would let users pay for postage using codes sent by text for sending letters and parcels under the weight of 2 kilos.
Åsberg apparently said there is no more risk of people forging codes than there is with stamps, and both codes and stamps will be read by postal service scanners.
He also reportedly confirmed the price of posting letters and parcels will not rise with the introduction of the new text service.
