The last of the fax machines in Dhaka
In the age of smartphones, email, and cloud computing, why have these ancient hardware stuck around?
In 2018, when my colleague Nusmila Lohani was applying for a scholarship at Columbia University, the institute specifically required the vaccination papers to be faxed — not emailed. But in the era of electronic mails and online applications, this seemed like a tall order.
However, the struggle was just beginning. In the midst of all the other visa-processing work she was handling, she asked her father to do something about it. After much searching, her father found a shop in Sobhanbag, near Dhanmondi 27, and from there, she was finally able to fax her papers to Columbia University.
But that was six years ago.
Today, finding a fax machine in Dhaka might take you a while. A few machines, though, are still lurking in some corners of the city. Some police stations in Dhaka, government offices, and NGO offices still have fax machines and the numbers are also provided on their websites. But they rarely use these nearly extinct machines.
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In the age of smartphones, email, and cloud computing, why have these ancient hardware stuck around? Is it a legal requirement? Or do fax machines have some secret superpower that important government officials need for policy-making?
The last shop with a fax machine
Md Ali Akbar sits on his reclining chair in a small office at Doinik Banglar Mor. 'Mizan Onubad Kendro' (Mizan Translation Centre) is a corner shop on Toyenbee road, packed with photocopy machines, desktop computers, printers and a crowd of young translators.
On his old table lies a black Panasonic KX FT 983 fax machine. The numbers and words on the buttons have been erased due to years of usage. Yet, after looking through half of the city from New Market to Dhanmondi, Khilgaon, Banasree, Kalabagan and Mohammadpur, this was the only shop I could find a fax machine in.
The machine still works, but the small digital dialing screen shows the wrong time of the day. "It was more than a month ago since we last used the machine. And we had to struggle to operate it," said Ali Akbar, in his 60s.
However there was a time when the machine regularly served its purpose. "Motijheel is one of the busiest places in Dhaka. Everyone is here for work and there have been days when we sent more than 30 to 40 faxes a day," he added.
Faxing a single page cost Tk15-20 if it was sent inside Bangladesh while international faxes cost Tk50.
Akbar is probably going to get rid of the machine though. "Nobody wants to send faxes anymore," he explained.
Years since Motijheel police station used its fax machine
The fax machine lies on the corner table of the Motijheel police station officer in-charge's room. It looked polished — not a speck of dust on it.
"It has been more than two years since we last sent or received any fax. We use emails now. The machine lies there, nobody touches it," said Jahangir Munshi, one of the clerks of the Motijheel police station. Jahangir and his colleagues were working on their computers when he spoke.
The duty officer at the New Market police station was surprised when we searched for a fax machine. "Do they still make fax machines? Who is still using that in the era of emails?" he asked.
"The government gave fax machines to the police stations so that they can share important documents, papers and images. And it is a very strong and important instrument for police service," said Ishtiaque-ur-Rashid, the AIG of ICT division, Bangladesh Police.
According to him, even today, government officials, secretaries, and directors have fax machines in their offices.
One of the director generals at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Nafiul Hasan, has a fax machine in his office and according to his secretary Julekha Akhter, multiple documents arrive through his fax machine everyday.
"But sir usually does not check the faxed documents as we are very much email-users now. If you need to send any important document, I would suggest emailing it," Julekha said.
"Until the government officially notifies about an instrument on whether to use it or stop using it, we cannot say that it [fax] is useless," Ishtiaque-ur-Rashid said.
Recently though, fax machines did serve police during the countrywide shutdown and internet blackout
"We had to continue the flow of information. So, we used fax machines as the machine is available in police circles, if not in every police station," said Enamul Haque Sagor, AIG of Media and Public Relations, Bangladesh Police.
Why do people still use fax
Even today, people search 'how to use a fax machine' on the internet. The last fax machine tutorial on YouTube is six months old.
Faxes are now used to transmit PII and HIPAA data as it is more secure than email, which can be hacked. Security information and background investigation materials are usually faxed for the same reason.
"Fax machines are still used because they are secure and there is less chance of being lost or stored in spam. Also as it is connected with the telephone line, we can call the recipient to let them know that we sent an important document. As a result there is less chance of it being stacked under hundreds of emails or documents," AIG Ishtiaque said.
But fax does have one problem: the recipient is not verified in any way. Someone types in a phone number and fires off a fax, but if the number is wrong or has been changed, the wrong person will receive it.
With email, at the very least, it will go to the right place as long as the domain name is correct and the domain has a DNS MX record. And secure, end-to-end encrypted email is probably cheaper than an analog phone line these days.
Faxing without a fax machine
Nowadays there are multiple options, like FaxZero, Free Fax Online, IFax, etc. that provide online faxing services. It is more like sending email. You will first have to scan the document or the image you want to send, and upload it to your computer. Using the websites, you can then send that scanned file by providing a fax number.
But if you prefer to do it offline, there are multiple copy machines and printing machines in the market that have a faxing option. Some of the popular machines available in the market are HP OfficeJet Pro 8139e, Canon G7020, Brother MFC-J6540DW, Canon imageRUNNER 2730i etc. These machines have a phone jack point to connect to the telephone line, through which you can send faxes.
However, the printing and copying stores in Bangladesh generally do not use this option. Most of the shop operators are not even aware of the phone jack in their photocopy machines.
