As Australia Post prepares to launch its digital business this week, complete with a payment facility, a start-up has confirmed its plans to compete in the digital postal services market.Digital Post Australia is a consortium owned by the investor service company Computershare and technology companies Fuji Xerox and Zumbox Software. Zumbox is a digital post box provider, which launched a service in the United States in June last year.Digital Post Australia's chief executive, Randy Dean, says the local business will be operating by the end of the year. It will include a payment facility.Dean said the company had signed contracts with companies from a range of industries, including financial services, utilities, wealth management and road toll operators.Digital Post Australia's business model involves contracting with businesses that want to send mail digitally. Consumers will be able to receive mail and respond (by making payments, for example) but will not be able to send mail.Dean said: "Business documents are in digital form before they become physical pieces of mail. We take that data stream and put it into a digital post box."The pitch for consumers is that once they register with Digital Post Australia they will have access to all their electronic mail in one secure location.Dean said the company did not plan to create its own payment system. "We will facilitate use of the consumer's preferred payment method," he said"Consumers can set up their mail box so that when they click the payment button the system will take them to their bank's website. We will allow them to set their preferences."We will not be competing with the banks or secure payment services."