A NEW communications technology that uses spare capacity in television transmissions to deliver point-to-multi-point broadcast fax services is to be launched in Hongkong later this year.
An international consortium, known as Faxcast Holdings, is looking for a Hongkong-based firm to provide the local link of an ambitious global fax service, which will eventually allow subscriber-based fax services to be sent simultaneously all over the world.
The service uses a ''black box'' decoder technology developed in Canada by Faxcast Broadcast Corp to receive fax services delivered within the ''vertical blanking interval'' (VBI) of a television broadcast interval.
Television signals are broadcast at 25 frames per second, with each frame divided by a ''blank'' broadcast space.
''That space is blank of video and blank of sound,'' said Faxcast Broadcast chairman Mr Robert Towning.
''The data that we send is sent in that space.'' The ''black box'' sits between the television receiving antenna and the fax machine (or personal computer with faxcard), decoding data sent within the VBI.