Fax broadcast: glossary of terms
• History of Fax
• Components of a Fax
• Fax Groups
• Bureaufax
• Fax Marketing
• Direct Marketing
• Spam
History of Fax
The invention of the fax dated from the mid-nineteenth century, shortly after the telegraph, and began to be used in the print shops to send and receive images via telephone lines. However, it was not until the early twentieth century when all kinds of business began to use it to support its communications, thanks in part to technological advances of this technology.
Formerly, the first fax machines were in black and white, later evolving to a grey scaling. Today color has been incorporated into the scanners, although the vast majority of fax machines continue to use the grayscale. /
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Components of a Fax
The key parts of a fax are an image scanner, a modem and a printer. Each of the components has a function, the scanner converts the document into a digital image format, the modem allows to send the image over the telephone line, and the fax recipient's printer prints it as a copy of the original document.
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Fax Groups
The fax groups appear as a measure to standardize fax machines, improve efficiency and the time it takes for a fax reach its destination. The first group, Fax group 1, appeared in 1974 thanks to the Department of Standardization of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), later three other groups appeared:
Group 1: created in 1974, based on the ITU-T recommendations T.2. These faxes take four to six minutes to transmit a page fax, with a vertical resolution of 98 lines per inch scanned at a rate of 2,400 bps. Such fax is not manufactured at the present time.
Group 2: created in 1976, are based on the ITU-T recommendations T.30 and T.3. These faxes take 3 minutes to transmit a page with a vertical resolution of 100 lines per inch scanned at a rate of 9,600 bps. Although it is obsolete and no longer being manufactured, some companies still employ it to be able to communicate with Group 3 faxes.
Group 3: created in 1980, are based on the ITU-T recommendations T.30 and T.4. It takes between 6 and 15 seconds to transmit a single page (not including the time of initial synchronization and identification of the machines), at a speed of 14,400 bps. The horizontal and vertical resolutions are the T.4 standard, with a number of possible combinations: Horizontal: 100 scan lines per inch, Vertical: 100 scan lines per inch; Horizontal: 200 or 204 lines per inch scanned, Vertical: 100 or 98 lines per inch scanned ("Resolution Standard fax"); Vertical: 200 or 196 lines per inch scanned ("Resolution Fine fax"); Vertical: 400 or 391 (not 392) scan lines per inch ( "Resolution Superfine Fax"); Horizontal: 300 scan lines per inch, Vertical: 300 scan lines per inch; Horizontal: 400 or 408 lines per inch scanned, Vertical: 400 or 391 lines scanned by inch.
Group 4: created in 1984, are based on the ITU-T Recommendations T.563, T.503, T.521, T.6, T.62, T.70, T.72, T.411 to T.417. It was designed to operate at more than 64 kbit/s digital networks on ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network). His resolution depends on the recommendation T.6, which refers to all of the T.4 expansions. It is capable of receiving faxes from the Group of fax 3 or 2, although the communication must go through a connection between the analogue and digital network.
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Bureaufax
The bureaufax is a service of sending documents by fax that has some similarities with the telegram, and differs from it by receiving the document via fax (facsimile) instead of via telegraph.
The usefulness of Bureaufax is that it certifies both transmission to the addressee (certified report with a confirmation of receipt), as well as the content of what sent, of which the contracting service saves a copy stamped by the officer. For that reason, it is mainly used in official announcements such as in litigation of advocacy, as it provides proof in the face of a possible trial that the specific announcement was sent on the set date; this feature is only provided by telegram and certified report.
Fax Marketing
Also named fax mailing, mass fax, fax broadcast, faxing or fax mailing, involves sending or broadcasting a fax advertising or information to a mailing list of fax numbers of companies with the aim of inform or promote a product or service. The fax mailing basically is a media for B2B, business to business, as mostly companies have fax numbers.
Direct Marketing
Direct Marketing is a direct system without intermediaries for the promotion of a particular product or service to a targeted audience, using one or more media to obtain a measurable response. The mostly used channel in today's direct marketing is the postal mailing by which companies and their responsible person for marketing send their advertising messages to consumers, usually extracted from a database. A variety of mailing would be the mailing that is inserted directly in the mailboxes of buildings, saving the cost of the postal service and mostly represented by advertising brochures and other elements. A second method of direct marketing is telemarketing, which means that companies call either previously selected phone numbers or random ones with the purpose of promoting or marketing a product or service.
Other methods or direct marketing channels, which currently are being increasingly used are electronic channels: e-mail marketing, fax marketing, SMS marketing etc., because of their advantages of speed, cost and effectiveness over traditional means of direct marketing, and that, when used improperly, without the prior consent of the recipient, known as spam.
Some of the advantages that commend direct marketing are: It is a fast and economical way of reaching consumers; It addresses directly the potential customers of a product or service so that their effectiveness is greater than with other mass media; Most direct marketing is done by companies whose sole function is to design and implement this kind of publicity. Generally, they use databases of consumers and often handle highly sophisticated criteria for its inclusion or removal from their lists of marketing.
Spam
They are unsolicited advertisements sent in massive quantities. Although it can be done in various ways, the most widely used among the general public is the email. Spam can also be directed toward mobile phones through text messaging, SMS, and instant messaging systems. In Spain the Law on Society Services of Information and Electronic Commerce (LSSI), published in the BOE of July 12, 2002 forbids sending junk mail or spam. Also the Organic Law of Data Protection (LOPD) is applied in case of personal data. In the United States the Law CAN-SPAM was enacted in regard to this, but has been virtually ineffective.
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