While the price for an official registered letter is an average of CZK 26 (€1, approximately), a data message currently costs CZK 13.30 (€0.50, approximately) without VAT, and this will continue to fall as the number of sent messages continues to rise. Since the data box system was launched in July 2009, over CZK 500 million (€21 million, approximately) has now been saved.

The system of data boxes continues to expand. Currently:

• Data boxes are used by about 430 000 public authorities, legal professionals, citizens and entrepreneurs;
• Every working day, users send over 150 000 data messages, which is more than 3 million per month, and nearly 55 million have been sent in total (up to 18 September 2011);
• There is a delivery success login rate of 97.1 %, which means that over 97 messages out of 100 are read by the recipient within 10 days of delivery. This percentage is also still growing;

Background Information:

The Information System of Data Boxes (ISDS) has fundamentally changed the way that the public authorities and citizens communicate with each other. Citizens can send or receive official correspondence anytime and anywhere, using a computer or mobile phone, in or outside office hours, from their living room or on vacation by the sea. The user can also tailor their data box according to their personal needs. They are able to filter and sort the data, choose the level of security, set their password, and send unlimited invoices or returns.

Since its launch, the system has worked without major problems, dealing with the maximum load and providing all the required functions.

Data boxes are designed to store electronic communications of citizens and companies with the state, of citizens with companies, and between different public authorities. Sending data box messages is free of charge to users, and the cost of sending data messages by public authorities is covered by the state budget. The data box system is managed by the Ministry of the Interior (Ministerstvo Vnitra, in Czech) and operated by Czech Post (Česká pošta, in Czech).

Each Data Box is password protected and accessible only with a certified eSignature. The Data Boxes Information System is fast (the message data is delivered almost immediately), reliable (the data cannot be lost) and simple to use, while offering the advantage of authenticating the sender and the receiver.

Further information:

• Original news article - Ministry of the Interior (in Czech)
• Related ePractice news article - CZ: New portal launched for data boxes
• Related ePractice news article - CZ: Czech data box system has now delivered over 50 million messages
• Background information - ePractice eGovernment Factsheet for the Czech Republic