Southern Company customers to receive billing electronically

The U.S.' largest electric utility will offer electronic billing as an option to its 11 million customers.

Southern Company (Atlanta) will implement an electronic billing process from CheckFree first to its employees, who will view and pay bills electronically using their PCs. The system will then be rolled out to Southern's 11 million customers in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, who will access their utility bills online.

The new service will make it easier and more effecient for Southern customers to pay their utility bill. For Southern, providing bills electronically will save money -- sending paper bills is more than twice as expensive as online billing, according to market research firm Killen & Associates.

Beyond the bottom line, Southern electronic marketing manager Will Knight believes the new service "will keep us in the lead by continuing to provide useful, time-saving tools for our customers," ultimately retaining their business