As office computers became commonplace in the 1980s, telex switched to a new telegraph code, ASCII, which aided integration with computers. ASCII is a 7-bit code, compared to the Baudot 5-bit code, which means it has enough codes to represent both upper and lower case whereas Baudot machines printed in upper case only. Teleprinters could then be used in conjunction with word processor programs for instance.Huurdeman, p. 512 Increased use of fax machines on telephone lines drove down telex traffic, a change that was precipitated by the postal strikes of 1971,Bennett, p. 579 and most especially those of 1988.Commission of the EC, p. 15 Email and the internet mostly superseded Telex in the 1990s. The number of subscribers in the UK fell from 115,000 in 1988 to 18,000 in 1997.Huurdeman, pp. 512–513 One of the last groups using the telex service was solicitors, who used it for exchange of contracts in conveyancing amongst other things. Conveyancing can be done by post or telephone, but telex has an immediacy that the former does not and provides a written record that the latter does not. Conveyancing can also be done over the internet, but in the 1990s there was some concern over its security.Walker, p. 492
