Royal Mail Services Inland letters

Communications is a very important branch of commerce. It is concerned with two basic aspects:

- the variety of methods which a company uses to send information to its customers: letters, postcards, telexes, advertisements on television, radio and in the newspapers, trade magazines, etc.

- the means of making contact with a person, group or region: telephone, telegraph, railways, roads, ports, airports.

Both methods of transporting goods as well as the modern means of communication have made the world into a single market. The means of written and oral communication, in particular, provide manufacturers and trade operators with information concerning the state of the market and its future trends. Telephone, telex and computer-based systems for communications make contacts and decisions immediate enabling businessmen to do business transactions and to move goods, documents and capitals to places thousands of miles apart.

In relation to commerce, we consider here the methods of transmitting written and oral information. The principal channels for transferring written communications are the postal services run by the Post Office and private operators. Telecommunications services covering both written and oral information are run by British Telecom Plc and Mercury Communications Ltd.