Covington - Is The Fax Machine Dead?

Is The Fax Machine Dead?

Phillip A. Covington

Personal Web Site

Well, at least not for the moment anyway. The fax machine does, however, seem to be slowly following the path of the electric typewriter. Due to the proliferation of computers and word processing typewriters are now seldom used, if at all. Many younger people, having grown up with computers, can honestly say they've never even seen a typewriter.
There is a major difference, though, between the typewriter and fax machine: a fax requires both the sender AND receiver to have one. That may sound like an obvious point, but the significance of it is often overlooked. A person who prefers or can only afford to use a typewriter is still perfectly free to mail a letter to anyone, regardless of whether the recipient is computerized or even has a typewriter. But to receive a fax (regardless of how the sender faxes it) the person on the receiving end must have a fax machine, or fax-capable computer. There is also the fact that, even if you have a computer, while you can send and receive faxes electronically you cannot SEND any document which isn't already in your computer. To do that requires a scanner so that you can scan the document (like using a copy machine) into your computer where a copy of it is stored as an electronic file; THEN you can fax it.
Some individuals and organizations don't receive or send a sufficient number of faxes to justify using a computer and/or purchasing a scanner. Also, in homes or offices where space is at a premium a fax machine takes up less room. However, other than for those reasons just listed, the advantages of faxing via computer far outweigh those of using a fax machine. Cost is no longer an obstacle since many new computers ship with fax capability built in and the prices for scanners continue to drop. In fact, it can actually cost more to go out and buy a fax machine!

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This page last updated
14-Jan-1998

Why Use a Fax At All?

Earlier I said that many people miss a significant point in regard to the entire fax issue: Why fax at all when you don't have to? Many have been in the habit of sending and receiving faxes for so long that now that they've switched to computerized faxing they overlook the fact that with a computer on both ends email can be used instead! Email is far more efficient (and MUCH cheaper) than faxing. So if you've been using faxes with an organization or individual that's computerized and online, try email instead.

Two Exceptions Where a Fax May Be Better

There are only really two situations in which you might still want to send a fax even if the sender and recipient both have email capabilities. The first is where the document is needed immediately (meaning within minutes). Email, while highly efficient and generally reliable, is not perfect. A typical email message usually averages only 3 to 30 minutes as it travels over the Internet from sender to recipient. However, fast transit time is not guaranteed. Delays may occur and due to a system glitch email may occasionally not even reach its destination. In addition, to reduce constant traffic and network jams larger organizations often queue their incoming and outgoing email so that it can be processed altogether in batches at scheduled times. Sometimes this may even mean that emails aren't processed until the next day. (You should be aware that these same delays can occur with faxes sent or received via a large organization's computerized fax server.)

The second exception is when you are sending confidential information such as a credit card number, etc., or documents which for legal reasons require a signature and/or more acceptable proof of delivery than email currently offers. The validity of legal documents sent via fax is still being debated and laws are still being pondered. But generally an email has little or no legal merit whereas faxes continue to receive increasingly greater acceptance by the courts as valid legal documents. Naturally, you should check with an attorney before sending anything about which you are in doubt. For some things it seems we still can't get away from the old-fashion delivery methods just yet!

Electronic Security

Lastly it should be mentioned that the above exception regarding confidential information is easily addressed by the security provisions which are being included in greater and greater numbers of popular software packages. There is still no reason to send a fax for reasons of confidentiality if your email program and that of the person on the other end both offer compatible security features. Even if you don't both use compatible software there are numerous separate programs on the market which allow you to create secured files which can be opened on the other end by anyone (with the correct password), without them needing to have the same program. More information on this subject can be found under the section titled:

The Advantages of Electronic Documents.