To the ICANN Board of Directors
On behalf of the 16 Postal Administrations
that have formally endorsed the .post application and committed their support to
the .post TLD, should it be awarded, I would like to address some specific issues
that should help clarify the intention of the .post TLD.
Stability of the UPU as
a Sponsoring Organisation for a TLD
The postal industry, through the UPU has been
actively pursuing a .post TLD since 1997, when a group of 16 Posts, forming the UPU’s
Advanced Electronic Services group, formally requested a .post TLD in letters to
ITU, IAHC and WIPO. In June 1997, I personally signed the gTLD Memorandum of Understanding
on behalf of the UPU. It has always been our intention to establish a trusted domain
to facilitate the trusted communications of the citizens of the world. Our
proposal to establish a globally recognised domain where individuals are issued with
an email address that is linked to a physical address is identified in our proposals
dating back to 1997. A domain managed by the UPU should not pose any financial risks.
The activities of the UPU are financially supported by the Governments of the 189
member countries and their public operators. The United States Postal Service alone
has a revenue budget of $67.9 billion for fiscal 2001. Sixteen postal administrations
have formally endorsed the .post proposal, which is effectively sixteen entire countries.
Why
do we need a TLD to deliver these services.
The postal services throughout the
world can be categorised, based on three fundaments:
1) Trust
2) Address Competence
3) Everyday
Deliveries to Households and Businesses
The very same parameters are key to global
business and communication for the foreseeable future. We must emphasise the world
GLOBAL. The Internet has driven the explosion in global communications and electronic
commerce. However, it is important to understand that we actually live in a hybrid
world of electronic and paper communications. For over 100 years the UPU, its members
and the postal industry have provided the infrastructure and services to enable international
paper communications. It is vitally important to implement the same three fundaments
in the Internet world. The Posts therefore need to plan and implement services and
policies to secure continuous Postal services, not only for physical mail, but also
for the growing electronic volumes. A number of Posts have already commenced projects
to investigate the transparency and migration of physical mail addresses and electronic
addresses. Should this concept prove to be successful, the .post TLD will allow for
very rational worldwide postal addressing services. The .post TLD will allow the
UPU to produce tools and policies to support the development of integrated secure
services to be used in and between its member countries.
The primary purpose and
use of the .post TLD will be to create postal addresses in the electronic world.
These addresses will be linked to single or multiple physical postal addresses. These
addresses will only be issued by Postal Administrations to individuals according
to specific authentication and identification procedures. Recipients of a .post mail
will be assured that it is a real mail from a verified and trace-able sender address.
The fact that an electronic address can be traced to a physical address is vitally
important for international electronic commerce. In the developed world, 15 – 20
% of the population changes their physical address every year. We understand the
complex task of address management in the physical world.
The same identification
procedure will handle URL allocations. This policy will be the same in all Posts
around the world, monitored and controlled in accordance with the provision of all
high value postal services. The .post TLD will give us the appropriate tools to monitor
and control the quality and performance of this service. The UPU will have the right
and duty to correct any mistakes or mismanagement of these policies. Technical
means to avoid and control mismanagement will be implemented and monitored equal
to other high value postal services. For example, in the USA, the Postal Inspection
Service guarantees the security and integrity of postal items. Similar procedures
will be applied to .post.
UPU and Posts´s Capabilities for Managing the .post
TLD
The delivery of electronic Internet based services is not new to the UPU or
Postal Administrations. Every Post in the developed world operates systems and delivers
electronic services such as on-line Address data bases, Electronic Bill Presentment
and Payment services, Certification Authority services, the Post*Net global network,
Quality Control Systems, Hybrid Mail, Post airlines, Post carfleets etc. As an international
network of organisations the Posts process over 400 billion letter-post items each
year. The Posts are by nature local and International. If any organisation has the
potential and background to rapidly understand a TLD operation with addressing as
its major subject of business - it is the Post.
Commitment from the Postal
Industry
We have read in the Evaluation Report that .post is an appreciated application.
The purpose of this letter is to clarify some of the issues raised in the report.
There will always be questions and issues to be resolved in a complex service "set-up"
like the .post TLD.
With the .post TLD we are dedicated to produce a state of the
art global mail service. As for all large organisations we need quality-time
to care for the development of policies and service opportunities but over time we
will prove that the .post TLD decision was rightfully allocated.
Sincerely
yours,
Thomas E. Leavey
Director General
Universal Postal Union