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From 1 792 to 1990, the French postal service has gone great transformations. Transportation systems, supply services and production processes were improved over time. These improvements were achieved either gradually through long-run reforms (as, e.g., for the development of the network of post offices) or more rapidly (as for computerization). These changes were not always easy, as the postal organization is largely dependant upon the will of legislators and of the ministry of finance.

The holding KPN (Netherlands Post Office) was created in 1988; it gathers several companies that previously were part of the Dutch postal administration. KPN is floated in the Netherlands and in the USA. The privatization process is generally considered as fully successful, with post privatization yearly profits increased by 50% in less than ten years. This success is largely explained by the careful preparation of the privatization reform, the strong consensus reached within the Netherlands, and KPN' s very profitable monopoly on its home market. Its postal services subsidiary, PTT Post, which was fora long time accused of hindering the group's growth, achieved a remarkable performance when it acquired the Australian group TNT, one of the world's leading groups in international mail. PTT Post managed to grow through a strategy of internationalization and technical and commercial innovation (in a domestic market that was initially expected to shrink). However, this remarkable performance brings little benefit to domestic customers due to the absence of public regulation. Besides, KPN showed signs of fragmentation and increased vulnerability.

The paper first demonstrates that the dual nature (public utility/commercial enterprise) of the French postal service (La Poste) creates a double-bind situation for the company's staff. The consequences of this situation are then studied, both for the staff and for users. It is shown that (adverse) consequences are more important for deprived individuals/users. This leads in practice to a denial of the equality principle which traditionnally characterizes public utility services and which is systematically used to oppose any request that services be adapted to the specific needs of deprived users. What is in fact observed in deprived areas is the opposite of affirmative action, with both staff and users of these areas being disadvantaged. In its relation with its most deprived users, La Poste seems to perform poorly both in terms of local cost of service estimations and in terms of tailored service. How then can the real "cost" of public service obligations be measured?

From 1830 on, the French postal service develops its network in rural areas. This network does not consist only of post offices. It must also be apprehended at a finer scale: public letterboxes, postmen's rounds) through detailed case study approaches. Indeed the population is more sensitive to the latter than to the former. However, it is in fact the interconnection of those different networks that enables the postal service to respond to the general needs of the public by the end of the century.

This paper describes an exploratory research carried in the south of the Paris region, in the Essonne département, and concerning the relations between the French postal company, La Poste, and the territory. Both users and staff accept the idea that the republican ideal of a spatially strictly homogeneous supply is not sustainable any more. In practice, this republican (socio-political) ideal has long co-existed with two other forms of territorial organization: an industrial form generated by the requirements of postal flows management; an economic form, as services were spatially and socially differenciated. These three forms (socio-political, industrial, economic) are associated with different patterns of territoriality The central issue in the regulation of the postal system lies in making these territorial patterns compatible.