I provide the service with a single modem for the local community to allow individuals outside Hong Kong to be able to reach those in Hong Kong who do not have e-mail. It also allows companies in under-developed countries to send business inquiries to firms in Hong Kong that have not joined the internet.
This service is to help people, it is not a tool to be abused even if it is to retaliate to pretty 'scummy' companies.
We constantly have people like Greg Spinos (South China Morning Post Technology Letters, February 24) using our service to harass other fax owners.
In 99 per cent of cases this is pointless. The tpc.int system has features that will track the number you are sending to, how many pages and faxes you have sent in the past hour, day and week, even if you change your sender e-mail address. Thanks to these features, the system blocks 85 per cent of faxes sent via the system. Yes, some useful faxes getting through.
The problem happens when users like Mr Spinos queue 4,000 e-mails that reach the server in under an hour. The machine ends up clogged and, in some cases, the fax queue will get jammed and no faxes will be transmitted and it may be days before I can clear it.