Why do you want to BAN something that'll eventually be superseded? We didn't BAN the telex machine, it gave way to something better. My university must have been one of the last in the UK to introduce email, though, in 1996, the same time it finally introduced Windows. Apparently it was one of the last to introduce the fax, too!

Fax is still faster than snailmail, and there are a lot of places in the world where dial-up internet access is limited, and the postal service is unreliable - not everyone is as lucky as you or me. If an organisation in a 'Third World' country hasn't got a fax machine, it's not because it's got 1GB broadband, it's because it's run by very stupid people. (And no, not all 'Third World' countries are the same, nor are people in 'Third World' countries)

Only the other week, I received a contract by snailmail, which I had to sign. I could have a) signed it, scanned it, converted it to PDF, and then send it back by email b) signed it and sent it back by post or c) signed it and sent it back by fax. I chose c) as would many other people in the circumstances. Not everybody has a .jpg of their signature and PDF software.

It's a self-contradiction for people to say that the fax is old-fashioned, and yet still use snailmail, not to mention renting PO Boxes. We don't really use those in the UK, anyway - if an organisation gives out a PO Box number as an address, we tend to think it's dodgy.