The facsimile revolution has, it appears, hit France in a big way too, with the number of installed machines tripling to 300,000 between 1987 and 1989, and France Telecom estimating at least 450,000 by next year: reason is of course reduced costs and increased speed – for example, one page sent from Paris to Marseille costs 7p and gets there in 15 seconds, compared with 22p for the price of a stamp and a one to two day period by post; the only area where facsimile machines are not making their presence felt is among the general public, but according to Matra SA, building them under a Japanese licence, in three years time the price of a machine could have fallen to UKP200, paving the way for integrated communication centres in French homes, incorporating both a telephone and facsimile machine.
