Why Faxing Remains Part Of The Modern Communications Scene

For a technology whose roots are over 100 years old now, faxing has held on well. In addition to the more recent (1990s) addition of online faxing to the mix, fax machines have proliferated since the 1960s and easily total several hundred million in working condition around the globe. Literally billions have been manufactured and sold. They remain an integral part of a modern firm’s communications toolbox, and should remain so for many years to come. This is because faxing functions as a bridge technology between the older machines and the newer online services.

There are various and diverse reasons why it all worked out this way, but it is more important for today’s businessperson to understand the importance of faxing rather than its history, although a few sentences are perhaps useful as background. After a number of different inventors (Alexander Korn in 1907, and a list of Europeans going back to the mid-1800s before him) had tinkered with technology that sent scanned images over a phone line, it was in the 1920s that German, French and American companies that finally brought the first working models to market. They were big, expensive and, compared to today, very slow. But they were good enough for government work, and were used by the military during World War II.

Modern era

The Japanese were the first to revise their phone line protocols to allow the use of fax machines. In the postwar era and through the 1960s, continued developments pushed down the size and the cost of fax machines. They became affordable for businesses, large ones at first because of the price. By the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, prices had dropped low enough to make them a commodity purchase. Soon every business had one (or two or 10). The continuing refinements included smaller sizes, the use of plain paper, inkjet models and what we now refer to as all-in-ones (fax machines that operate as copiers, scanners and printers, too).

Now that we are in the Internet age, some people expected that fax machines would wither away and disappear entirely. However, this was shortsighted and turned out to be far from true. Fax machines remain essential to businesses even today because in many parts of the world they are the only thing besides phones that people (and companies) have. The Internet has not spread everywhere yet, and to have a graphics-transmission technology that works over a phone line has been a boon to areas in Africa, South America, Asia and elsewhere.

Online fax: Multiple uses, minimal costs

If you do business around the world, you know that many people and firms have only the fax in addition to their phone lines. You, on the other hand, can reach them without having to use the more costly fax machine by opting for an online fax account. With an online fax account, you can reach out to people who do not have e-mail by sending your outgoing faxes through a service that converts them for you. The converted communication from you will end up printing out of the recipient’s fax machine. Conversely, when a fax machine sends to you, it is likewise intercepted and the image(s) converted into a graphics file that is attached to an incoming e-mail.

These incoming e-mail-based faxes have attachments in standard computer file formats that any modern computer can read. It does not matter if you use a Macintosh, PC or a Linux computer, you will be able to use an online fax service as long as you have an Internet connection, a Web browser and an e-mail account. These are bottom-line basics for most people so there is really nothing special or complicated involved. Various companies offer slightly different packages of services, but they are similar in their operation.

Bottom line

The bottom line is that you will not reach everyone that you want to reach without being equipped with either a fax machine or online fax service. To be completely ready for any communications requirement, you need to be prepared with the proper equipment. Your business needs the tools to compete not just in cyberspace, but in less-digitized parts of the world that are currently only up to the level of fax technology. The good thing is that the Internet continues to spread. The really good thing, though, is that fax machines are quite capable of holding down many of the communications responsibilities of the day, and they are a mature technology that is dependable and lasts a long time.

This is why faxing remains part of the modern communications scene, and why it likely will for some time to come. If you want to be connected to the whole world, you need to add online fax capabilities to your own business.

Metro Hi Speed is a leader in email fax solutions for any sized business. Less expensive and more reliable than traditional fax services – you’ll enjoy the convenience and well as the cost. Visit us today for more information on our small business and corporate fax solutions.