ABSTRACT
Recent studies show that faxing accounts for about 40 percent of a typical Fortune 500 company’s yearly phone bill, with the average fax machine shared by 21 to 23 people. In the United States, the annual spending on fax long-distance has been estimated at about $12 to $15 billion (Murata Business Systems, 1996). One industry touchstone, the annual Gallup/Pitney Bowes fax study, estimates that U.S. long-distance fax minutes grew to 140 billion in 1999. With the advent of e-mail, express mail, overnight delivery services, courier services, voice mail, and even videoconferencing, one might expect the use of faxing to decline, but it has not. Fax usage is growing, not shrinking. In fact, according to a major polling organization of users who fax on a daily basis, 60 percent were faxing more than in the previous year.
