If you use a fax machine often, you may be wondering about faxing with VoIP. Most providers offer some type of fax support, and many offer a dedicated fax line either as part of a business plan or as an option. This article will briefly discuss some of the available faxing options, as well as some things to be aware of when choosing a provider.
You can use the VoIP Comparison Chart for a quick overview of providers that support faxing over VoIP. Most providers that support faxing offer a dedicated fax line as an option. Also, since business users usually require a fax, many providers include a free fax line in their business plans. The monthly fee for a fax line usually includes a limited number of outgoing fax minutes, with unlimited incoming minutes. Outgoing fax minutes that exceed the monthly limit are billed at a low per-minute rate.
There are a few things to look for when choosing a provider if faxing is important to you. One of these is the faxing protocols supported by the provider. Faxes require a more reliable connection than voice calls, and faxing protocols have been designed to provide this reliability over VoIP. Two protocols that are designed for faxing with VoIP are g.711 and T.38. Sending and receiving faxes will be more reliable if the provider supports one of these protocols. If a provider supports faxing, they should be able to detect a fax signal and automatically switch to one of these protocols until transmission is complete.
Another consideration with faxing over VoIP is the supported baud rate. Although this should not cause any problems, you will need to know the maximum baud rate that is supported so that you can set this in your fax machine or fax software. While some fax machines and software are able to transmit at up to 14,400 baud, most VoIP providers limit support to a maximum rate of 9600 baud.
As far as initial setup is concerned, faxing with VoIP is quite simple. All that needs to be done is to plug your fax machine (or computer modem if you are using fax software) into an ATA. Once this is done, you send and receive faxes in the same way that you would with a normal telephone line. The only change that you might need to make is to limit the baud rate on your fax machine or faxing software to 9600 baud as mentioned above.
Another consideration is that most VoIP providers do not allow “fax-blasting” (sending the same fax repeatedly to different numbers). If providers detect this sort of activity on your fax line, they may limit or discontinue use. So if advertising via fax is important to you, you may want to consider one of the online companies that provide this service at a reasonable cost.
Also, keep in mind that fax support among VoIP providers is ongoing and increasing. This means that if you are experiencing any problems with faxing, you may need to upgrade the firmware in your ATA to incorporate changes made by your provider. This should not be a problem, as it involves a simple software download directly to the ATA. And do not forget that a fax line, just like an additional voice line, will consume available bandwidth. About 100k of bandwidth is required for sending or receiving a fax over VoIP.
If faxing is important to you, it is likely that you will be able to save money in this area by using VoIP. This is particularly true with long distance faxes – you can achieve the same type of savings with faxes as you can with your long distance voice calls. You can use some of the other tools at this site, such as the VoIP Comparison Chart, to help you choose a VoIP provider today.
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