It's official — the fax machine is finally going to that great junkyard in the sky. It appears to have drawn its last digital breaths this week when Ofcom announced that it would most likely support a government decision not to continue with its legal duty to have departmental fax machines under Universal Service Order legislation, a law that also ensures that Britons have telephone services at an affordable price.
Despite their popularity in the last two decades of the 20th Century, the death knell was effectively sounded when telephone networks switched to internet protocol systems (known as IP) from the old telephone network, meaning that fax machines would eventually become incompatible. It happened at the beginning of October, when the Government amended the Electronic Communications (Universal Service) Order 2003, removing fax machine services from the Universal Service Order.
Hansard, the official record of Parliamentary debates, noted that aides working at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport had conducted a survey within its sphere of influences and had "found that the use of fax was minimal and alternatives are being sought where its use still continues”.
However, it isn't entirely over quite yet. Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, is giving the machine just one month to have its case stated by anyone who believes they still need to have them buzzing and beeping away in the corner of the office. It follows a poorly-supported UK-wide consultation a year ago, when there were just 13 responses. Of those, nine said they would shed no tears if the fax machine were to be replaced by something more technological, or even a reasonably-sized office pot plant.
Two respondents had no strong feelings one way or the other. But two argued that the fax should be allowed to keep on going. Their argument, accepted by Ofcom, was that fax machine was still a favoured medium in the legal, medical and travel sectors. According to a report in The Guardian, the loss of the fax obligation could have serious implications for devices that still used similar systems, such as telecare alarms for elderly or vulnerable people.
Ofcom stated: “The migration to IP process is being managed by industry but Ofcom expects providers to assess customers’ needs and offer advice and assistance to those who use telecare devices. This is a very important issue, given the potential vulnerability of these consumers, but it is not clear that the removal of the fax obligation would have any additional impact.”
However, the watchdog concluded: “Given the availability of a range of alternatives such as email and online document management platforms (many of which are free of charge), we consider it is unnecessary for the provision of fax to continue to form part of that minimum set of telephony services under the universal service obligations”.
If the fax machine does disappear, it will leave behind a legacy of highlights — and one or two lowlights.
- The singer and drummer Phil Collins went down in music folklore as having split up with his ex-wife Jill Tavelman via fax. However, in 2016 he went on record with ABC News to say it was "based on an untruth" that "really hurt my career.” He added: "I thought it would be an opportunity just to lay it all out, and if I say it didn’t happen, I’m trusting that people will believe me.”
- Julia Roberts and Matthew Perry were said to have flirted heavily via fax prior to Roberts' appearance on Friends in 1996. The technology worked: the couple went on to date for around a year
- Dolly Parton is said to still use a fax as her primary mode of communication.
- Prince William and Kate Middleton sent out their wedding invites by fax in 2011. Courtiers stated that faxing was the most efficient way of dispatching invitations to all corners of the world.
- Camille Paglia and Julie Burchill were involved in a vitriolic fax duel in 1993 following a scathing book review by the latter. The faxes were later published in the Modern Review by then editor Toby Young.
- In 1995 Stephen Hawking sent a fax to a magazine that had asked him for the formula to time travel. Hawking's fax stated: "I do not have any equations for time travel. If I had, I would win the national lottery every week.”
- David Bowie was once said to have been so convinced that avant-garde artist and musician Laurie Anderson could read minds that he had her randomly fax him pictures she had drawn to see if they matched up with his own. Apparently they did.
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