Tag Archives: fax

How the Fax Machine Maintains Its Popularity

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This post was last updated on February 5th, 2021 at 08:59 pm

faxmachinepopularityAlthough a variety of technological innovations and tools continue to make the fax machine seem almost obsolete, there are a number of different elements working together which manage to keep the use of the fax machine alive and well. Undoubtedly, one of the largest factors that drives people to continue using the fax machine is found in the use of the internet fax industry. Options such as Google fax and eFax are essentially cloud products which allow people to be able to send and receive faxes in the form of PDF documents. This makes the fax process more convenient and efficient.

The fax machine is used frequently in other countries which rely on it as a method of communication, such as in Japan where it is still greatly used for business purposes and even to provide warning advisories to surrounding governments. In the United States, every February the fax machine gains a large amount of attention during college football’s National Signing Day. This is due to the countless high school recruits which are required to send their scholarship commitments and agreements via fax. There are also many other situations where the fax continues to be used on a daily basis, such as sending tax documents for business purposes or even getting written approval from doctors for medical procedures.

While there are some that belief that the fax machine has a very short-term relevance in the modern world, it’s undeniable that faxing continues to maintain function. As long as businesses, academic institutions and other facilities require faxes, the method of communication is never going to completely disappear. There are always going to be consumers and customers who are going to rely upon it for some form of communication. This is especially true as the internet fax industry continues to evolve and make faxing documents more convenient. Although faxing as we recognize it may eventually change, there’s still many circumstances where faxing itself will continue to survive.

Japan’s Fax Technology Blamed for Poor Mudslide Warning

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This post was last updated on February 9th, 2021 at 08:49 pm

japanfaxNew reports claim that Japan’s reliance on the increasingly outdated fax technology may be to blame for the failure of warning citizens about the danger associated with Typhoon Wipha. The Japan Meteorology Agency defined Typhoon Wipha as a strong “once a decade” storm; its strength brought heavy rains that ultimately led to deadly mudslides responsible for the deaths of 28 people and over 20 other individuals that remain unaccounted for.

The issue is that the Tokyo Metropolitan government sent a fax transmission to warn the affected local governments. The Miyake government received the warning and advised all of the residents to evacuate as soon as possible, but the office staff in Izu-Oshima had already left and the officials didn’t see the faxed advisory until almost midnight, six hours later. At this point, it was already deemed too dangerous to ask the residents within the area to leave their homes. Although Japan has one of the world’s fastest internet connections, most of corporate Japan and its officials continue to rely on fax machines. Fax machine technology itself became fairly widespread in Japan during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Despite the issues associated with using the antiquated version of fax technology, the Tokyo Metropolitan government is still defending its continued use of the methods. They claim that it has worked well in the past and that it hasn’t led to any serious issues previously. One official said that that the government will keep the current fax system in place, but that they have also collected the mobile numbers for disaster prevention and control at the local governments in the area so that they may contact them directly when fax communication fails. The government maintains that sending a fax is the most efficient warning option available because it allows them to transmit all of the advisories at once.