Sweden, Denmark to Pay Postage by Text

Sweden has had a long history of paying for things with your cellphone. I remember hearing years ago about vending machines that would bill your cellphone account for whatever delicious treats you wanted to vend. Now, the Swedish postal system has decided to offer a service that allows the use of a cellular text message (SMS) to pay for postage. The user sends an SMS message and service will send a special code back. Just write this code on the envelope in the place of a stamp to verify payment.

The Sydsvenskan newspaper spoke with Anders Åsberg, the head of marketing and development at Posten AB, the Swedish postal service. This idea is a new one, "We're very interested and are just now looking into a solution." He mentions that there isn't a more significant risk of forgery with the new system. For all of you Swedes out there, this doesn't mean a rate hike either. The cost of postage should remain the same. Posten AB just wants to make it easier for it's customers to send mail. The SMS messages will replace stamps on all letters and packages up to 2kg.

Denmark plans on allowing it's postal customers to use a similar service. They're about ready to get started with this program. It should launch on April 1.

We talk a lot about SMS messages here on Slashgear. Brush up on the latest SMS news here.

[via The Local]