yes there are situations where faxes are needed in the USA. As I understand it mostly is in cases regarding legal documents. In the NYTimes article i linked in the previous post though they talk about individuals still buying fax machines and people preferring to fax their lunch orders to a restaurant instead of doing it on a website.

From the article: "The Japanese government’s Cabinet Office said that almost 100 percent of business offices and 45 percent of private homes had a fax machine as of 2011. "

I would be surprised if 10% of private homes in the USA have a fax machine.