Will the fax machine ever disappear completely?

[AY1975]

Following on from a number of mentions of fax machines on page 12 of the thread on things that used to be commonplace in people's homes at https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...in-people’s-homes.212936/page-12#post-4952403 I was wondering if the fax machine would ever disappear completely sooner or later just like the telex machine did in the 1980s and 90s when it was largely superseded by the fax.

Fax machines are certainly much less common in people's homes now than they were in the 1990s and early 2000s, as I would guess that most people who used to have one no longer feel the need for one now that email and the internet are in widespread use and most things that used to be sent by fax can now be sent either as a plain text email or as an email attachment.

That said, many businesses still have fax machines even if they don't get used all that much these days. I wonder if there is anything that can still only be done by fax and that can't be done by any other means? I suppose the main thing that they are still useful for is dealing with small businesses that are run by people who are nearing or over the normal retirement age and who still don't use the internet, only a fax machine, and for the diminishing but still sizeable number of older customers who aren't on the internet but do have a fax machine.

 

[birchesgreen]

The SME i work for doesn't have a fax machine, this caused a minor kerfuffle a few years ago when someone wanted to send us a fax and we have no machine (unfortunately i can't remember why it had to be a fax now). I'd be surprised if there are that many customers these days who have a fax machine but no interest to be honest.

Btw were fax machines that common in people's homes? I had one in the early 2000s though got rid of it as it was never used.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Btw were fax machines that common in people's homes? I had one in the early 2000s though got rid of it as it was never used.

Never had one at home, and the sole purpose of the ones at work often seemed to be to receive unsolicited advertising flyers for toner cartridge supply companies!

 

[nlogax]

As long as there's a chance of internet connectivity being temporarily lost by a business there'll usually be a fax machine in situ. Amazingly I see a report of predicted long-term growth in fax machine sales over the next three years though how accurate that will turn out to be is anyone's guess.

Btw were fax machines that common in people's homes? I had one in the early 2000s though got rid of it as it was never used.

Never had one either although I could have had access to one easily enough.

 

[Dai Corner]

I never had a fax machine at home, though, like everyone with a PC running Windows and a modem, had the functionality. I remember an awkward conversation with the boss when I faxed in sick.

As for current users, I seem to remember a former Health Minister claiming to be one of the world's biggest buyers of fax machines as the NHS still made extensive use of them. This was this century I think.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

I never had a fax machine at home, though, like everyone with a PC running Windows and a modem, had the functionality. I remember an awkward conversation with the boss when I faxed in sick.

As for current users, I seem to remember a former Health Minister claiming to be one of the world's biggest buyers of fax machines as the NHS still made extensive use of them. This was this century I think.

The NHS does not make extensive use of them now

Hospital email is better encrypted and secure and is the preferred medium of choice now.

Been a few years since I last saw a facsimile machine in use...

 

[DarloRich]

Lawyers still use a fax machine on a regular basis. It is secure and admissible. A faxed signature is legally binding.

 

[SJL2020]

Do football clubs still use them on transfer deadline day?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Do football clubs still use them on transfer deadline day?

It wouldn’t be transfer deadline day without a breathless tale of chairmen, managers and players standing over a fax machine at two minutes before the end of the transfer window. Sorry, I mean “before the transfer window slams shut” as Sky would have it

 

[pdeaves]

Some TOCs get certain information (don't know what) from station to head office via fax. I saw someone clutching a load of faxes only this summer just gone.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Do football clubs still use them on transfer deadline day?

Faxes, no, not any more.

 

[swt_passenger]

It wouldn’t be transfer deadline day without a breathless tale of chairmen, managers and players standing over a fax machine at two minutes before the end of the transfer window. Sorry, I mean “before the transfer window slams shut” as Sky would have it

With Jeff Stelling on his bike at the end of the season, perhaps they’ll all calm down a bit. Or a lot…

 

[S&CLER]

I bought a fax machine in the early 1980s, when the cheapest on the market was over £1000; it paid for itself in a few months, because it allowed me to accept regular translation work from an agency in Jersey, which I couldn't have dealt with by post. It also eliminated the need to receive some urgent documents from London agencies by Red Star parcel, a tiresome business which often required evening trips to Lime Street. I had a separate fax line for decades, and got rid of it about 12 years ago. I moved over the years from a thermic paper fax to a plain paper one, and then to a combined fax/printer/copier/scanner. Latterly the fax was used only to receive handwritten documents. I used to return work by fax too, and there was a brief interlude of using an external modem before email came in. The legal profession seemed to like faxes; I still recall one occasion when I was phoned after 6 pm, and told that the order of evidence in court had been changed, and I would have to translate a document that evening and fax it direct to the barrister by midnight, so that he could study it in the small hours and cross-examine on it next morning. I had visions of him sitting up all night with a cold towel round his head like Dirk Bogarde as Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities.

 

[DarloRich]

Do football clubs still use them on transfer deadline day?

Yes - because of the contractual nature of the documents.

Faxes, no, not any more.

Yes they do at least as far as i have been told by "football people"

 

[telstarbox]

I haven't seen one since 2012 with Email and later Dropbox taking its place for information sharing. To me the biggest disadvantage is that the text isn't machine readable as soon as you send it.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Yes they do at least as far as i have been told by "football people"

This source, dated 1st July 2021, suggests otherwise.

The fax machine has been retired but clubs have the option of sending desktop faxes and scanned documents via e-mail.

Is a fax machine used for transfers?

Find out how clubs submit transfer documents to the Premier League

www.premierleague.com

 

[pdq]

I bought a new HP office printer last year which has fax facilities, should I wish to plug it in to a phone line. Whether many dedicated fax machines are still available to buy is another matter.

 

[dk1]

Not seen one for a few years now.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

You don't need a fax machine to get a fax these days; services like e-fax will deliver faxes from anyone to any specific e-address registered with them, so for the sender it's like a normal fax but for the recipient it comes as an e-mail with an attachment.

 

[C J Snarzell]

One organisation who still actively use fax machines are the DVLA, as they still operate with a paper based system for a lot of things.

CJ

 

[telstarbox]

The poor bastards!

 

[Busaholic]

The poor bastards!

The p.b.s are people like me, sent driving licence to them before Easter - received a letter (of sorts) end June requiring further info, which in fact was a reiteration of what I'd already sent them. Still no new licence (it's an age thing) and neither my GP nor (ex) Specialist has heard from them to check any details I provided.

 

[skyhigh]

Not seen one for a few years now.

We're clearly behind the times, still fax off repair slips, report forms etc. Drivers at my TOC aren't allowed to email the rosters team, so any leave requests/swaps/rest day work availability etc still have to get faxed off.

2022 leave requests opened at 00.01 on Monday, with a better chance of getting your chosen days the earlier you send them off, it was quite a sight seeing a queue of drivers standing by the fax machine waiting for midnight!

 

[dk1]

We're clearly behind the times, still fax off repair slips, report forms etc. Drivers at my TOC aren't allowed to email the rosters team, so any leave requests/swaps/rest day work availability etc still have to get faxed off.

2022 leave requests opened at 00.01 on Monday, with a better chance of getting your chosen days the earlier you send them off, it was quite a sight seeing a queue of drivers standing by the fax machine waiting for midnight!

My goodness that’s so strange to hear these days but hey, if it works still.

 

[DarloRich]

This source, dated 1st July 2021, suggests otherwise.

Is a fax machine used for transfers?

Find out how clubs submit transfer documents to the Premier League

www.premierleague.com

ah - yes - I was including online fax. Many lawyers have moved to that tool.

 

[najaB]

Lawyers still use a fax machine on a regular basis. It is secure and admissible. A faxed signature is legally binding.

When did that change? It never used to be. Telex was legally binding but fax was not because Telex can be set to use remote echo, meaning when I typed a key on the Telex machine what got printed on my end was a copy of what was received on your end. So if I pressed 'A' and 'B' was printed I knew that something had gone wrong somewhere. Unlike a fax where there is no guarantee that what I sent matched what you received.

That's why the Telex network was maintained well into the 2000s.

 

[DarloRich]

When did that change?

Don't know. Sorry. We certainly didn't have a telex machine.

 

[westv]

The last time I worked for a company that had a telex machine was 1979.

 

[najaB]

The last time I worked for a company that had a telex machine was 1979.

Yes, they had become exceedingly rare by the late-1980s but were still used in certain circumstances because they had legal status, unlike either email or fax. I believe the BT network survived until around 2005-ish.

 

[D365]

I bought a new HP office printer last year which has fax facilities, should I wish to plug it in to a phone line. Whether many dedicated fax machines are still available to buy is another matter.

My ”home office” all-in-one has fax functionality; funnily enough, my old PowerPC Macs could also send/receive fax using their built-in modem. Alas, I’ve never looked into setting fax up; simply no need.