STAATSKOERANT, 24 JANUARIE 2014 No. 37261 amended licence sets a target of 2,3 million new addresses between the years 2012-2014. In the financial year that ended on 31 March, 2012, 1199 273 addresses were rolled out to first-time address owners against a target of 1195 690. The address system is important for a number of reasons, including: location finding for ambulance, fire, police and rescue services geographical analysis and information about a city and its people, for instance as conducted in the census home and location addresses for easy communication and delivery business and tax applications provision of municipal services maintenance and repair of water, electricity, sewerage and telephone systems facilitation of law enforcement 4.6 Postal services in the digital age The flow of mail has changed from a two-way communication process, to a one-way flow. The mail business is increasingly moving towards 'pull' effects, that is, a customer or business requests an item, rather than 'push' effects where a business or friend sends a letter. The postal market can be viewed as moving away from social mail services, and towards business and corporate mail, albeit with consumers on the receiving end of those transactions. SAPO is uniquely placed to leverage on the vast network of postal outlets, fleet of delivery vehicles and telecommunications infrastructure to offer integrated services such as telecommunications, financial services and logistics. SAPO's broadband infrastructure, depending on architecture and capacity, could be leveraged to offer broadband services in rural and under-serviced areas, or to provide Wi-Fi zones within a specified radius of the retail footprint. 4.7 Postal reform trends The postal sector in most OECD countries remains dominated by a state-owned verticallyintegrated monopoly, still largely protected from the forces of competition. Globally there is a trend towards greater corporatisation, commercialisation or privatisation prior to liberalisation of the postal market. The general intention is to create a more efficient governance structure for the postal operator particularly when it must compete with private operators in a liberalised market. The following are some of the conclusions and lessons from international postal reform: Many countries have successfully undertaken reform; Where postal monopolies have been eliminated this has led to commercial flexibility; Reforms have frequently involved changes in the universal service obligation; Many governments have removed universal service delivery from the postal service itself and shifted it to another entity, such as the regulator; The experience in countries that have eliminated their monopolies, such as New Zealand and Sweden, suggests that universal service can still be maintained at affordable prices without a delivery monopoly;. Many reforms have included a mechanism for making the cost of providing universal service explicit such as a universal service fund; and Postal reform in some countries has included changes from government to private ownership, as in Germany and Holland. 31 This gazette is also available free online at www.gpwonline.co.za 35