Citing lack of customer interest, the U.S Postal Service will suspend its wireless access to selected services on April 7.
In a statement on its Web site, the USPS said, “this pilot effort did not find the support among our customers to make it a viable offering. We thank those customers who have used the service, and appreciate your support of it.”
The USPS declined to provide figures on the numbers of customers who had used the wireless service.
Launched last year, the service allowed customers to use wireless devices such as Web-enabled digital phones, pocket PCs and personal digital assistants to track delivery of packages, find ZIP+4 codes for addresses, locate post offices closest to any given street address and get directions to the selected office.
Though the postal service's experiment to provide wireless access to its customers failed, similar programs at United Parcel Service Inc., FedEx Corp. and DHL Worldwide Express Inc. continue to grow.
UPS, for example, said in February that it has been working closely with Air2Web, using its Mobile Internet Platform to extend wireless tracking around the globe, and as a result customers in 34 countries now have wireless access to tracking information.
Analysts said the USPS' wireless applications probably did not work because users did not mail time-critical packages via the USPS and, therefore, did not need to track their packages using wireless technology.
