Australia Post is still testing its secure electronic messaging service, Digital MailBox, four months after its launch, and it is not giving a date when consumers will be able to use the service.Digital MailBox is one of the cornerstones of Australia Post's move to digitise its business. The service, which will be free for consumers, is a secure communications platform where people can receive electronic mail from banks, government agencies, telecommunications companies and utility companies.Consumers will also be able to use the service to make payments. Companies that have signed up to send mail through the service include ANZ, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac, Link Market Services, Telstra, AMP and Yarra Valley Water.The Australia Post website did have a page where consumers could register to get the service. However, the page was shut down because of technical problems, according to an IT News report back in November.Despite the snafu, Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour said he was confident the company was moving effectively to seize opportunities in the digital economy. Speaking at an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney yesterday, Fahour said delivery of mail items by Australia Post peaked at 5.3 billion in 2008. Since then, the number has fallen at a rate of about 20 per cent a year.During the same period, delivery of items purchased by online shoppers has increased by 10 per cent a year. Australia Post will generate A$1 billion of revenue from "the online world" this financial year and, for the first time, parcel revenue will be higher than mail revenue.Australia Post is developing a locker network, to allow people to pick up their parcels from a convenient location near home or work. The idea is to overcome the problem of delivering parcels to empty homes.And, despite the delay, Fahour is confident about the prospects of Digital MailBox. "Ninety-five per cent of mail is government and business sending you mail. Social mail has evaporated. That government and business mail is what we will be directing through Digital MailBox."What makes it different from email is that it is a secure private network. Consumers choose who can send them electronic mail. Our view is that email is on the way down. Banks and other institutions don't send emails."