Western Union public fax services, 1960 [Telecom]

Anyone remember FedEx's ill-fated ZapMail fax service ?

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:02:19 -0400, hancock4 wrote: .......

I once had a job installing/maintaining the technical infrastructure with a company that provided "real time" financial market information world-wide.

In Australia the whole thing was fed (back in the mid-1980's) by one

Now, this link cost absolute mega-bucks in those days and it served hundreds of local customers who were on various multi-drop polled network nodes - all connected by 1200bps 4 wire dedicated links.

The service itself cost thousands per month per terminal, but every money market in the country had at least one - and these days the same data can be served hundreds of times quicker at a fraction of the cost!

There used to be some public stores (eg copying stores, stationery stores) that offered fax service for about $1/page, there may have even been self-service machines.

Is that still even offered?

Not everyone has a fax machine in their home or office, particularly retired people. Remember, a lot of everyday people out there do not have a computer in their home. Even those that do and can use the built in fax modem don't have the capability to scan a document, only fax text typed in.

But Western Union's prices seem awfully high, plus the cost of getting to their central office. I don't know the conversion factor for inflation for 1960, I'd guess maybe 8, so a single page to Chicago would be $29.00 in today's money. That's not cheap, and if the document was multiple pages . . . .

Yes, Office Depot and FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos) continue to offer this service. We don't own a fax machine and every once in a blue moon have to use their services to send a fax.

John

--=20 John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA

My credit union offers a public fax service for its members, something like $1 plus toll charges, but I'd have to call the office for exact pricing.

My mother tells me that at her retirement community, there is a "public" fax for its residents at the big administrative building, which they call the "big house". Many seniors probably don't want to bother excessively with fax unless they must.

ObTelecom: When my mother switched her landline phone number in her dwelling at the retirement community, the admins at the community wanted to make sure that 911 would work okay when going from the ILEC, EMBARQ, to Atlantic Broadband. At 80+ years of age, she wanted her high speed cable internet access!

As a standby, the community has those "pull the cord for assistance" signaling systems in the bathrooms and bedrooms which signal an attendant at the Big House.

As does just about every other "copy" and printing shop, and plenty of others. Typical rate would be $1.50 for the first outgoing (domestic) page and $1.00 for the following ones, and similarly $1.00 each for incoming. Lots of variation.

I suspect for many seniors today a fax is a valuable service. Seniors often have medical needs which means lots of billing and medical forms which need to get sent to multiple providers and health-care insurers. The paperwork seniors have just from medical care is enormous.

Seniors may be assisted by their children, who may live in a different place, and transmit financial documents to/from them.

I visited a senior in a facility and there was a common-use photocopy machine, with an honor paper cup for 10c a copy.

At my mother's care facility, the door entry was interlinked with her phone. But it took forever for the community to set it up, which meant visitors couldn't get in conveniently. Apparently the phones were maintained by a parent organization that operated the facility.

N.E.T. experimented with Apartment Door Answering Service (ASAS), on the Boston University centrex, at Back Bay in the late 70's. The local pairs were wired to an ADAS frame, and from there to the dial tone on the 617-353 exchange, which was served by a #5XB. I don't know what became of it.

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