 | ||
| Solar Postal and Communications Corporation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Former Name | Lunapost, Lunacomm | |
| Type | Statutory Corporation | |
| Industries | Catering, Manufacturing, Postal Services, Courrier Services, Construction, Spaceflight, Communications Transmission, Security, Marketing and Sales, Research and Development, Television and Radio Broadcasting, Publication, Banking | |
| Founded | May 1st 2027 | |
| Founder(s) | Eric Snow, Dr. John Hargreves, and Abigail Svorsborgen | |
| HQ Location | Geneva, Switzerland | |
| Area(s) Served | Systemwide and Extra-Solar | |
| Key People | Alistair Wright, Chief Executive Officer Charles Snow, Director Solpost Group Eric Gibbs, Director Solcom Group | |
| Product(s) | Blue™ Mobile Network Somcom Frontier™ Business Telephone Services Solcom Standardised Telephone K9X-Series Telephone Kiosk Solcard™ Solpost Priority Mail Superluminal Communications Relay Equiptment | |
| Net Worth (₵) | ₵40.5 Trillion | |
| Revenue (₵) | ₵100 Billion | |
| Net Income (₵) | ₵80.4 Billion | |
| Equity (%) | 25% | |
| Division(s) | Solpost Solcom | |
| Subsidiary | United Nations Socio-Economic Council | |
The Solar Postal and Communications Corporation (abbrev: SPCC but also known as "Solpost") is a state-owned telecommunications and postal corporation. It provides telecommunications, radio and television broadcasting, postal services, and courier services. Solpost is one of the largest employers in the Solar System and is comprised of various divisions ranging from the manufacture of telecommunications equipment to employee catering.
SPCC was founded in 2027 by the nationalisation of two companies; Lunapost and Lunacomm, and is currently under the ownership of the Postal and Communications Regulatory Board of the UN Socio-Economic Council, after the passing of Council Order #1454, ordering the nationalisation of interplanetary communication which resulted in the unification of Lunapost and Lunacomm into the SPCC.
In its early form the SPCC was purely a postal services and delivery company, however, due to the advent of lumicom it has evolved to cover everything from staff catering to television and radio broadcasting on an interplanetary scale. To that end the SPCC is one of the largest employers in the Sol System, ranking fourth in scale.
The SPCC has three primary divisions; Solpost (Postal Services and On-Planet delivery), Somcom (Telecommunications management and infrastructure), and with SPCC Services (Sale of Products, Marketing). Each of the four divisions has a variety of subsidiaries nested under it. The directors of the primary divisions form the SPCC Board of Directors.
The current Chief Executive Officer and Postmaster General of the SPCC is Alistair Wright, and he was appointed on June 6th 2110.
| Name | Founded | Director |
| Solpost Group | 2027 | Charles Snow |
| Solcom Group | 2027 | Eric Gibbs |
| SPCC Services | 2112 | Tayna Davison |
Solpost Group
Solpost Group (known as Solpost) is one of the oldest arms of the SPCC, with responsibility for postal services, interplanetary courier services and on-planet delivery along with the operation of the Solbank postal bank. Solpost is one of the most well-known arms of the SPCC, operating a variety of post offices on colonies and military installations.
Interplanetary Addressing
Solpost, in conjunction with the Hargreves Research Laboratory, was responsible for the development of Colonial Addressing, the system of postcodes and addresses used on the various space colonies of the United Nations. The primary form of the Interplanetary Addressing system is the PPC or Planetary Postal Code. Each PPC is specific to each address on each colony, in this way, the PPC is personalised to the distinct address except where commercial services are concerned, where additional letters may be appended to denote the company you are sending mail to. Interplanetary Addressing is only used when sending letters and packages to other planets, parallel to this there is a separate more conventional system relying upon the area, district, and street codes present on the PPC.
The PPC code contains the following information:
- Planet
- Area Number
- District Number
- Street Number
- House Number
"For example, let's say you lived on Earth, on a Street called Acacia Avenue in Oxford, which is in Oxfordshire in house No. 7. As Earth is the planet, it goes first. Earth is abbreviated on Planetary Postal Codes as the letter "E", next comes the Area Number. As this is in Oxfordshire, let's say that Area 3 is in Oxford, which is District 12 and you live in House 7 on Acacia Avenue, which is Street 235. This means your Interplanetary Postal Code would be: E-A3-D12-S235-H7" - Interplanetary Addressing Explained, SPCC Publications, C.2070
Postage Stamps
Postage stamps are printed by SPCC Publications, a subsidiary of the SPCC Services division and must be affixed to each letter before sending. They come in three classes for ordinary letters and packages:
- Priority Mail (Next day delivery unless interplanetary) (3 Credits)
- Ordinary Mail (Next week delivery unless interplanetary) (0.20 Credits)
- Interplanetary Mail (5 Credits)
For packages, the system is largely the same however the cost is dependent on the weight of the package being sent. Telegrams are also offered by Solpost in cooperation with Solcom for a 0.32 CR / word fee, however, this is variable and dependent on how much use the telegraph system is currently getting on a monthly basis.
Postboxes and Sorting
Solpost operates several post boxes dotted around the solar system, locally managed by the District Sorting Centre. These boxes are coloured in a colour known as SPCC "Drab Olive" and are distinctive to the SPCC, or where commemorative they may be painted gold.
Sorting System
Solpost maintains 3 tiers of sorting centres, they are the District, Area and Planetary Sorting Centres. All forms of mail start life at the District Sorting Centre, where the mail is initially processed and dispatched for delivery if the recipient is within the district, if not then the package or letter is classified as 'Interdistrict' and sent to the Area Sorting Centre where it is reprocessed and dispatched for delivery if the recipient is within the postal area, if not then it is classified as "Interarea" and dispatched to the Planetary Sorting Centre where it is again reprocessed and dispatched to the area that the recipient lives in, which then filters back down to the district the recipient lives in, and is dispatched for delivery. If the intended recipient is not present on the planet then the package or letter goes directly to the Planetary Sorting Centre, where it is dispatched to the Planetary Sorting Centre of the intended recipient where the mail filters back down to the district level.
A Postal Area is made up of 6 Districts, which are each made up of 100 streets where the number of houses per street may vary. The amount of Postal Areas per planet is dependent on population density and on individual planets, a more conventional system of sorting occurs where only the area and district code are required in order to send mail, along with a conventional address.
Subsidiaries of Solpost Group
Solpost Group maintains 4 subsidiaries:
- Solpost Spaceflight (Operation of interplanetary courier vehicles)
- Solpost Delivery (Operation of sorting centres and on-planet delivery)
- Solpost Services (Operation of post offices and associated services)
- Solbank (Postal bank, Money orders)
Solpost Spaceflight is responsible for the manning and operation of interplanetary delivery vehicles, and the other for operating the myriad of sorting centres in orbit of various colonies. The primary flagship of the Solpost Spaceflight fleet is the SPV-432 "Flagcarrier" which is used for public engagement events. The first ship commissioned under what was then known as Lunapost is the PV-001 "Frontier" and currently resides in a special exhibition within Luna Historic Shipyard.
Solbank
Solbank (unabbreviated as; Solarbank) is the postal banking service operated by Solpost and offers a selection of services ranging from savings bonds to regular current accounts. This combined with the operation of post offices by Solpost Services means that Solbank operates out of every post office in the solar system, making it one of the largest banks by number of locations throughout the solar system. Solbank operates in a unique position, being the only bank directly backed by the United Nations which allows the bank to offer a unique form of monetary security to its customers. Solbank is most popularly known for its low interest rates in comparison to other banks in the solar system, which encourages its use as a savings bank.
Savings Bonds
Solbank is most widely known for its operation of savings bonds, the most famous being the Premium Bond Lottery, in which people are encouraged to save their money with premium bonds with the opportunity to win tax-free cash prizes. The way this system works is by withholding interest payments from the bondholder and instead paying them into the prize fund. Every two months a bond draw occurs in which randomly generated bond numbers are selected and traced back to their holders, with the cash prize being automatically deposited into the Solbank account of the holder. Premium Savings Bonds were introduced during the Martian Revolution in order to raise funds for military equipment.
Premium Bonds are sold in units, with one unit being equal to 1 Credit, all the way up to ten units for 10 Credits.
Other bonds offered by Solbank include Guaranteed Income Bonds, Green Savings Bonds and Children's Bonds, which are offered to the parents of children under 16 as a good way to save.
Solcom Group
- Interplanetary Transcommunications Company, also known as Solcom Engineering (Maintenance of Equipment and Transmission, Equipment installation)
- Solcom Operations Organisation (Operation of Directory Enquiries and Manually Switched Exchanges)
- Solcom Public Services (Network Operation, Payphones, Broadband Internet, )
- Interplanetary Broadcasting Company (Television and Radio)
Solcom payphones operate using what is known as a "Solcard", which automatically deducts a fee of 2 Credits for the use of a payphone from the customer's accounts. As Solcom is the state monopoly on communications by virtue of being the only operator due to the prior nationalisation order, the Interplanetary Transcommunications Company also deals with the installation of telephones for both homes and commercial businesses, along with installing exchange and transmission equipment.
The Interplanetary Broadcasting Company
The IBC was established in 2089 to provide a unified public broadcasting television and radio service to the colonies of the United Nations. The IBC operates Channels 1 through 4 that deal with the main colonies, along with radio stations such as "Radio Luna" and "Mars Radio" along with the vanity channels covering news, sports, entertainment and forces programming. The IBC is in and of itself divided further into the Interplanetary Television Service and Solradio. The IBC uses the Superluminal communications network of Solcom, which means it is receivable anywhere in the solar system, and Forces Radio is receivable to an extent, beyond the solar frontier due to transmitters installed on SDCSS Proxima.
Due to its status as a public service broadcaster, the channels of the IBC do not show advertising, this is due to the fact that the primary section of it's budget comes from contributions gathered from the International Telecommunications Union.
| Main Television Channels of the Interplanetary Television Service | Main Radio Stations of Solradio | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Channel Name | Purpose | Station Name | Purpose |
| Channel One | Programming for Earth | Radio Luna | Programming for Luna |
| Channel Two | Programming for Luna | Mars Radio | Programming for Mars |
| Channel Three | Programming for Mars | Venusia | Programming for Venus |
| Channel Four | Programming for Other Colonies | Forces Radio | Programming for SDCN Personnel |
| Forces Television | Programming for SDCN Personnel | NME Radio | Systemwide News, Music and Entertainment |
Staffing and Financing
Staffing and finances from the SPCC is drawn through the United Nations system and the various member organisations, though the Postal and Communications sectors of the SPCC share different avenues for gathering staffing and funding.
Postal and Delivery Elements
Staffing for the postal and delivery elements of the SPCC comes from the Universal Postal Union, a quarter of the SPCC budget is made up of contributions from UPU member nations, along side a fifth of total staffing. Though, as far as on-planet delivery is concerned the SPCC Board has decided to engage in local recruitment.
Communications Elements
Staffing and funding for the communications and broadcasting elements of the SPCC is provided by the International Telecommunications Union, half of the Solcom budget is aquired through the contributions of ITU member nations, though the funding for Forces Television and Forces Radio is provided by the Sol Defence Corps. Staffing for the engineering and research aspects of Solcom is drawn from the member nations, though staffing for all other positions is drawn through local recruitment.
SPCC Services
By far the newest addition to the SPCC, SPCC Services deals with everything else the other divisions don't handle, such as construction, catering, marketing, sales and the security of sites. SPCC Services is the smallest arm of the SPCC, however not to the extent that its job is hampered. SPCC services contain the following subsidiaries:
- SPCC Manufacturing (Manufacturing of transmission equipment, telephones, etc)
- SPCC Catering (Catering to staffing facilities)
- SPCC Construction (Construction of transmission sites and SPCC offices)
- SPCC Commercial Services (Operates front-of-house telephone rental shops, performs marketing work)
- SPCC Publishing (Publication of material on behalf of SPCC Commercial Services, Solpost and Solcom)
- SPCC Security Services (Security of Transmission sites and sensitive corporate information)
- SPCC Janitorial (Cleaning of offices)
- SPCC Research Section (Research and Development)
SPCC Manufacturing is responsible for the manufacture of telecommunications exchange equipment and telephones, payphones and other associated forms of equipment. SPCC Manufacturing is most well known for the K9X series of payphone kiosks, the sleek modern designs pave the streets of various plazas across the solar system. SPCC Commercial Services manages the money-making operations of the SPCC, which is primarily the collection of line rental fees and telephone rental fees. Due to the nature of the SPCC, telephones remain the property of the state and are rented out to the end user along with their line.
SPCC Research Section
The SPCC Research Section (known formerly as the Hargreves Research Laboratory and the Solcom Engineering Research Section) is the primary research and development institute of the SPCC, being responsible for the design and development of transmission relays, telephones, payphones and associated technologies.
SPCC Security Services
SPCC Security Services is responsible for the security of transmission sites and sensitive corporate information, as well as the investigation of postal and communications crimes. To that end, SPCC Security Services is divided into three divisions:
- Postal Inspection Division
- Communications Crime Unit
- General Site Security Staff
The Postal Inspection Division and the Communications Crime Unit are some of the most tightly shut divisions within the SPCC family, and not much is known about their activities aside from what has been leaked to the press due to the nature of their work.
Controversies
During the Martian Revolution, the Postal Inspection Division & Communications Crime Unit of the SPCC Security Services division came under fire on Mars for their cooperation with the Sol Intelligence Service in tracking down members of the revolutionary organisation, Ares Freedom Fighters. Along with their armed response to attacks on SPCC property by armed revolutionaries garnered criticism from the pro-revolution Martian press.
The SPCC also garnered criticism for their restrictions on the broadcast of pro-independence voices on Mars Radio and Channel 3, when in reality this was due to a secret directive issued by the UN Socio-Economic Council, the existence of which was only revealed after the end of the Martian Revolutionary War.