Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!RICE.EDU!almes
From: almes@RICE.EDU (Guy Almes)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Fax over tcp/ip
Message-ID: <8910131208.AA18264@iapetus.rice.edu>
Date: 13 Oct 89 12:08:19 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 17

Steve,
  The Internet consists of a large fabric of (increasingly) T1 leased
lines to be used in support of scholarship and research.  If we use it
to ship FAX images, and if those images support scholarship and research,
and if they comprise a small fraction of our (fixed cost) circuits, then
I don't think there would be objection.
  One positive outgrowth would be that, if this became common, then people
would start building interesting/useful tools, including:
  * compression techniques for reducing the bandwidth required,
  * more flexible inputs than simple scanners (various text or graphic
	format files as input)
  * more flexible outputs than FAX printers
besides, it might spur real use of multimedia mail if/when our multimedia
mail techniques are shown to be better.
  I'm not a fan of FAX, but it is useful at times and there is no reason
to be stuck with dial up phone lines when we do use it.
	-- Guy