The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) today published a public consultation on its review of the universal postal service specification in Ireland. The universal postal service is a designated minimum postal service to be available to everyone in Ireland. The current specification was set by ComReg in 2012. Frontier Economics and Amárach Research were commissioned by ComReg to research whether the universal postal service specification is still appropriate. In particular, has the changing technical, economic and social environment since 2012 changed postal service users’ reasonable needs. Our research findings and subsequent recommendations then fed into ComReg’s review.

Based on our research, Frontier recommended that ComReg should consider whether the universal postal service should:

• No longer include bulk mail services
• Reduce the maximum weight for postal parcels
• No longer include ancillary services (PO Box, Redirection, Post Restante, MailMinder, Business Reply, and Freepost)

ComReg’s consultation will close on 7 September 2018.

Frontier Economics regularly advises on postal regulation across Europe.