Faxing has been around for over a century, and despite the rise of email and digital communication, it remains one of the most widely used methods for transmitting sensitive documents in industries like healthcare, legal, finance, and government. But how does a fax machine actually work? And how has technology evolved to the point where you no longer need a machine at all? This blog breaks it all down.
A fax machine is a device that scans a printed document and transmits it as an image to another fax machine over a telephone line. The receiving machine then prints an exact copy of the original document at the other end.
For decades, fax machines were the go-to tool for businesses that needed to send contracts, medical records, legal documents, and other sensitive materials quickly and with a verifiable paper trail. Unlike email in its early days, faxing was considered secure and legally binding, which is why it became so deeply embedded in regulated industries.
Today, fax machines are still in use, but the underlying technology has evolved significantly. Many businesses have replaced physical hardware with cloud fax platforms that deliver the same functionality over the internet, without the machines, phone lines, or paper.
Here is how a traditional fax machine processes and sends a document:
Traditional fax machines rely entirely on analog signals transmitted over PSTN (the public switched telephone network), the same infrastructure used for landline phone calls. When you send a fax, you dial the recipient’s fax number from your machine, the two devices establish a connection, and the audio tones carry your document across the line.
While this process gets the job done, it comes with significant limitations that make it a poor fit for modern business needs:
- Dedicated phone lines are required, adding ongoing cost and infrastructure overhead.
- Only one transmission can happen at a time per line, making busy signals a constant problem for high-volume faxing.
- The process is entirely location-dependent: someone needs to be physically at the machine to send or retrieve documents.
- Hardware maintenance, paper, and toner create ongoing expenses that add up quickly.
- As carriers sunset POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) lines, the infrastructure that traditional fax machines depend on is becoming harder and more expensive to maintain.
Understanding why faxing is still relevant today helps explain why so many businesses are looking for a better way to do it, rather than abandoning it altogether:
Longevity: fax technology has been in commercial use since the 1960s, which means it is deeply embedded in the workflows of many regulated industries. Replacing the process entirely isn’t always an option, but upgrading the infrastructure is.
Regulated industry adoption: healthcare, legal, financial services, and government agencies rely on faxing because it creates a verifiable, tamper-resistant record of document transmission. eGoldFax preserves that record while adding enterprise-grade security and compliance on top.
Security: traditional fax transmissions travel over dedicated lines, which makes them harder to intercept than unencrypted email. eGoldFax takes that further with TLS 1.2 encryption, HTTPS transmission, and 256-bit AES archiving on every fax.
Cloud fax technology keeps everything that makes faxing valuable and removes everything that makes it frustrating. Instead of scanning a physical document and sending audio tones over an analog phone line, a cloud fax platform like eGoldFax converts your digital document into a fax-compatible format and transmits it securely over the internet.
eGoldFax uses TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) connectivity rather than SIP or VoIP, which means transmissions run over the same circuit-switched infrastructure as traditional fax machines, just without the hardware on your end. Your document travels from your computer, email, or MFP through eGoldFax’s secure Microsoft Azure-hosted servers and is delivered directly to the recipient’s fax number.
Here's how the two approaches compare:
Hardware: traditional fax requires a physical machine, a dedicated phone line, paper, and toner. eGoldFax is entirely software-based, requiring nothing more than an internet connection and an account.
Speed: traditional fax lines handle one transmission at a time, meaning busy signals and delays are common. eGoldFax's Never Busy feature ensures every inbound fax gets through, and real-time delivery confirmation tells you immediately when a fax has been successfully delivered.
Accessibility: traditional fax ties your team to a physical location. eGoldFax lets anyone send and receive faxes from email, the web portal, the Desktop App, or directly from an MFP, from anywhere.
The shift away from traditional fax hardware is accelerating, and for good reason:
Cost: traditional fax machines come with hardware costs, maintenance, phone line fees, and long-distance charges. eGoldFax eliminates all of these, with plans priced based on volume and unlimited users and MFPs included at no extra cost.
Remote needs: traditional fax machines simply do not work for distributed teams. With eGoldFax, employees can fax securely from any Windows device without needing to be in the office.
Security: eGoldFax goes beyond traditional fax with TLS 1.2encryption, HTTPS transmission, 256-bit AES archiving, ISO 27001 certification, and PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance built into every transmission.
eGoldFax is a secure cloud fax platform that delivers all the reliability of traditional faxing without the hardware, phone lines, or overhead. Plans are priced based on volume, with unlimited users and MFPs, plus 10+ years of free archiving at no extra cost.
eGoldFax is ready to provide your business with cloud faxing solutions.
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