Reasons for Using Faxing over IP

With the advent of Voice over IP as a interesting way to cut down communication costs on voice calls and spice up voice channels, ways have been found to send fax messages over IP networks. After much improvement, IP Faxing is now gaining momentum and is finding adopting everywhere, be it at home, in the office or in corporate environments. Why are people turning to IP Faxing? Here is a list of its advantages over traditional phone-line-based faxing.

•Cheaper

IP Faxing is cheaper than traditional faxing. The PSTN phone line is expensive, and since IP Faxing uses IP networks or the Internet (through VoIP channels) to transmit fax messages, the latter makes faxing much cheaper. Often, fax messages can be sent for free.

•Higher quality documents

The messages received are of higher quality than with traditional faxing, since the originating documents are often digital and remain so until they are printed.

•Better control

There can be better control over faxing activity. For example, quotas may be set for users and fax messages can be recorded for control or filtering. This helps with security, congestion control and allows the existence of hosted paid fax services.

•Fax machine dispensable

Any standard computer printer can be used to print fax messages that arrive through IP channels, since these are either image, PDF or word-processed documents on computer storage.

•No need to print

Files can be sent on soft copy; there is no need to print them before sending. They can also be received and hence read in soft copy as well.

•No need to move around

Fax messages can be sent and received anywhere there is a computer, and that saves many people from moving over to and from fax machines.

•Fewer fax lines

There is no need for additional fax lines in corporate environments. A minimum of these lines is sufficient, since software-based faxing (that’s what IP Faxing is, with servers) can have the messages queued to be sent whenever a/the line if free.

•Re-send unnecessary on error

Any malfunction of printing equipment, e.g. paper-jam on printer or fax machine, does not need the fax to be resent – it only needs to be reprinted, since a copy is available.

•Faxing without big investment

Individuals can benefit from cheap faxing with all features without having to invest on expensive hardware and software and other resources, by paying monthly for hosted services. This type of service also allows free faxing.

•Tailor-made development

Corporate users can have their faxing mechanism tailored to their needs since fax software can be re-worked or developed anew. Possibilities are endless here for developers.