Fax Broadcast 

The development of a fax machine or facsimile machine can be traced back as far as the mid 19th century and by the 1960s it has become a global ICT medium which is used to broadcast documents to multiple recipients at the same time. Originally, fax broadcasting was known as telecopying.

The main feature of fax broadcast, which is sometimes known as facsimile broadcast, is that to copy a document and sending them to multiple recipients simultaneously. These documents could be an announcement, press release, newsletters, invoices and workshop registration reminders for business based documents. Sometimes unsolicited advertisements also often distributed through this method (broadcast fax) but was prohibited by the U.S and considered as a junk fax. Its effect is similar to the broadcast sms (sms broadcasting) which is currently in use in many countries globally

In the business oriented world, most companies uses fax machine that has speed dials function to stimulate a broadcast fax while others might use internet fax through a fax modem that has a fax broadcast capabilities. The use and purchase of a fax broadcasting software or a broadcast modem also has become an additional business entity for some companies.

Advantage

By using an internet fax broadcast, the company or an individual doesn't have to stress about having extra equipments stored in their office such as a fax boards, extra software or multiple phone line, plus internet fax-broadcasting enable the user to continue their productivity without being tied up during the transmission of the web fax. What the user has to do is just upload the documents to be sent, include the list of recipients and send them through the internet. Some internet fax providers even equipped with auto area code correction and the ability to exclude some fax number to avoid sending an unwanted fax documents. Such internet fax services resembles an excellent virtual office solution.

Other than that, basically all internet fax broadcasting solutions helps the company achieving paperless environment by reducing the use of papers, ink and toners, Thus reduce the risk of a failure machine, paper jam during transmission and the lost of fax document since every incoming fax will be sent directly to you email inbox.

Disadvantage

Although it sounds true but sometimes a direct mail pieces can be lost in a regular mail due to the overlapping session with the incoming fax transmission. In order to avoid this, an automatic redial function is an added advantage to ensure the documents are delivered successfully during a fax blast. Taking advantage of this feature, many companies use fax broadcast to contact prospects or new customers in order to sell their products and services.