Chapter 2: ISDN Helps People Work Together

High Speed For FAX

The ubiquitous fax machine is one of today's most commonly used tools for person-to-person communication. And although facsimile machines have made giant steps forward since the "dark ages" of revolving drums and six-minute-a-page transmissions, ISDN stands ready to make them even more usable, and significantly less expensive.

Today, more than 35 percent of all long distance charges incurred by a typical large company are generated by facsimile traffic. According to arecent survey by USA Today, the average fax is more than seven pages long, and the average page requires about a minute to transmit.

The dialed, digital connections of ISDN offer a better, faster way to send these faxes. Group 4 fax machines, in fact, are some ten to twenty times as fast as the fastest Group 3 machine in use today. A full page Group 4 fax can be transmitted in from three to eight seconds, and quality is virtually identical to that of a high-quality laser printer.

In addition, several manufacturers now make PC-based fax cards that can send to and receive from both Group 3 and Group 4 fax systems interchangeably, as needed.

"Group 4 fax machines and dialed ISDN connections will probably save the typical company about 30 percent on its monthly long-distance bill," said Marc Josephson, president of Advanced Digital Networks, a systems integrator in New York. "But that's just the beginning. Because the corresponding savings in time and effort would probably be about four or five times as great."

According to Josephson, many PC-based systems today offer comprehensive facsimile store-and-forward capabilities, which can significantly cut the waiting time and delays common to sending faxes. These systems also function as fax mailboxes for incoming transmissions, and hold and deliver faxes when and where they're needed - just as voice-mail systems do now.