So, farewell then the fax machine
OfCom has agreed that BT (and a few others)will no longer be required to provide telephone land lines over which faxes can be sent. This decision has some wider implications but the key issue, that very few use a fax machine now, is undeniable.
After all there is e-mail, text, social media, what’s app and pigeons remain available as well.
It marks the end of a chapter in social and cultural history, and also has a wider industrial context, as the present dispute in the Royal Mail (I support the CWU) underlines.
The fax was the first technology that allowed the move away from physical post. I well remember feeding official documents into a fax machine for work purposes and, of course, sending fletters on my personal fax machine. At the time it seemed a remarkable development but several decades on the old style fax at least is nearly obsolete.
All that is solid melts into air…
Leave a Reply