People who work in science and technology know that everything is tentative, that all inventions are just stops along the way in a continuum of evolutionary activity. Communication between distant points, which began with smoke signals and progressed through the Pony Express and railroads to the telegraph and today’s mobile devices, will be evolving as long as there are people who want to communicate. Importantly, some technologies act as bridges between eras, allowing a stable and secure transition from one paradigm to another. Some of the bridges last a long time. For example, although cell phones can easily (and, now, economically) replace land lines for most people, both individuals and businesses still rely on land lines, sometimes “just in case.” There is no telling when this will change. We will have to wait and see.
The same is true for faxing. Although some people will tell you that e-mail, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and other methods make faxing obsolete, people continue to use fax machines and online fax services. The reason is simple. There are still situations in which faxes can save the day and perform when other protocols fail. Fax technology, both physical and virtual, is an important bridge between techno-eras, and will be around as long as there are reasons for a solid, reliable backup plan. This could be a long time, too, given the inherent weaknesses of the Internet as a basic communications infrastructure.
Phone lines vs. Internet
In case you missed the news, the U.S. government, through the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, is still trying to gain for itself a controlling interest in the Internet. When we consider how successfully the government has managed other things, this should scare the heck out of everybody who wants a truly neutral net. So-called net neutrality schemes, in fact, would make the Internet less dependable, not more, as it will be subject to political infighting and manipulations. That is only the first of several problems.
Another problem is downtime. This can be the result of hackers, slackers or hijackers, as well as server malfunctions, power outages both regional and local, and other things. The point is, if you are still using the bridge technology of faxing, you are prepared for these occurrences. Smart companies will not only have online fax accounts to reach all the tens of millions of fax machines in the U.S. (perhaps hundreds of millions worldwide), they will also keep a modern, well-functioning fax machine onsite in case of Internet downtime. Even with the net down, they will be able to reach, and be reached by, all those fax machines. That’s a good backup plan, don’t you think? It’s realistic, too.
Mature technology
One of the reasons that people continue to rely on faxing, online and phone-line styles both, is that the technology is mature. This means that it is dependable and predictable, and that you can rely on it working without a second thought. Even in the Western countries that are leading the way with new technology (Internet, mobile, wireless, broadband, etc.) it is important to gauge the maturity, reach and effectiveness of one’s communications methods. Faxing is stable and prone to very few errors or outages. Consider: How many times has your computer or network crashed or had problems in, say, the last year? In that time, how many times did your phone line go out?
Fact is, phone lines are on a different power grid than your other electrical devices, and phones (and, therefore, fax machines) keep operating. If you really want to plan for an apocalyptic situation, you would simply get a small generator or two to power a few office devices. You could then stay in touch with phones and faxes while everyone else waits for the power to come back on for the Web. Although this is probably not something you need to plan for (Armageddon, that is), it is nice to know that you have technologies that can work for you during tough times. By the way, there are also fax machines that can run on batteries as well as external, portable power supplies.
Office planning
Forget the apocalypse, forget the downtime scenarios, and just consider what a good and thorough communications strategy would be. In addition to e-mail and mobile devices, having online faxing and a backup fax machine simply means you have more ways to reach more people. Overseas, particularly in parts of Asia and most of Africa, there are far more fax machines being used per capita than in the U.S. This is because the Internet infrastructure has not penetrated as much as in the West, and because the phone lines, though not the best, are mature and have been working for years. When you see a business card from Ghana, for example, you will always find a fax number on it.
Bottom line: Faxing is a bridge technology that connects the past with both the present and the future. When you really need to ensure being able to communicate, you should use every available resource. Online faxing and fax machines definitely have an important role to play, and will for some time to come.
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