Receiving Incoming Faxes

[Spanner_Man]

I can't believe people are complaining about 3c for an incoming fax.. I mean come on, look at the alternatives;

How much a month in actual printing costs do people go through with a paper fax, let alone the toner/ink thats used to print the fax, and 9/10 times its usually rubbish that could have been emailed to you?

I'm in the process on talking to some other people that I've setup onto Exetel to drop their separate fax line (paying approx $35 a month in line rental to Tel$tra) just for the benefit of receiving a fax once or twice a month, and using this proposed system that Exetel is considering/setting up/deploying for their clients.

A business that needs to have the ability to receive a fax isn't going to qualm over 5c per fax thats being sent direct to their email, which then they can view and if need be only print if its required.

[antonio]

I agree totally-Receiving faxes has been the most annoying medium of my business for many years. Unfortunately I cannot get away from them completely even though I purposely do not advertise a fax number.

The Mbox fax to email service I currently use has been very reliable. It is more expensive than the proposed exetel service, however the main reasons I will consider changing is to consolidate and if the allocated number becomes portable. It would have to be very reliable, before I considered changing.

[ForumAdmin]

I agree totally-Receiving faxes has been the most annoying medium of my business for many years. Unfortunately I cannot get away from them completely even though I purposely do not advertise a fax number.

The Mbox fax to email service I currently use has been very reliable. It is more expensive than the proposed exetel service, however the main reasons I will consider changing is to consolidate and if the allocated number becomes portable. It would have to be very reliable, before I considered changing.

There is unikely to be a charge for receiving a fax - I'm not sure where that concept came from.

In terms of portability of numbers - it's too early to say as a lot depends on whenthe new VoIP portability structures come in to pace for a long term solution.

At the moment DIDs are part of the 'standard' number ranges and there are restrictions on porting them between providers.

This service is, as you would know, in its early stages and will be continually developed as we see it as a valuable 'add on' to the overall DSL offerings for those people who use faxes in their business or social lives.

[ForumAdmin]

I am also a little confused by this thread.

The current exetel email to fax service is ideal for me to send faxes.

All that remains is a system to receive faxes as PDF's from businesses that insist on using clunky fax machines.
Ideally to use the DID of my next naked ADSL2+ plan.

No desktop software is required-over a normal email client.

That's whats planned for later this month.

[ForumAdmin]

In other words, will the VoIP DID autodetect a Fax?

In the past I have had DID's which recognize faxes (from Koala and Oztel).

So it is possible.

Question is: whether Exetels system can do so?

Yes it can - it's a standard feature of Asterisk.

[ForumAdmin]

In guessing, which someone from Exetel may like to confirm, that the Fax DID will terminate at Exetel not at your own premises, so you will not need to worry about autodetecting faxes.

After all, it is described as Receiving Fax via e-mail so Exetel will receive it and convert it to I imagine a PDF and e-mail it to you, all automatically.

Correct.

[ForumAdmin]

great idea. i have been waiting for this. Telstra phoned yhis week and offered to match exetel email package, but i refused because of the exras you guys offer. Fax top email is key for me. Love your work!

Can you provide any details of what was offered?

[microbe]

Faxing is dinosaur technology. I ditched my second phone line about 2 years ago and took my fax number off all stationary.

I have yet to have a SINGLE person say "no, we can't email that, it has to be faxed". Or just get it by snail mail...is anything really that important?

Having said that, I think that $1 a month for receiving faxes is very reasonable.

[ianr]

Yep, a cheap incoming fax service would be great - I still run into the odd business that can only send faxes, not emails..

Would it be a local call for them to fax to me? ie is the number they would be faxing to a melbourne one, or another one that only costs a local call to send to?

[ForumAdmin]

Yep, a cheap incoming fax service would be great - I still run into the odd business that can only send faxes, not emails..

Would it be a local call for them to fax to me? ie is the number they would be faxing to a melbourne one, or another one that only costs a local call to send to?

The DIDs are STD coded so it depends on whether it local or National for the sender.

[GaryG]

Yep, a cheap incoming fax service would be great - I still run into the odd business that can only send faxes, not emails..

Would it be a local call for them to fax to me? ie is the number they would be faxing to a melbourne one, or another one that only costs a local call to send to?

The DIDs are STD coded so it depends on whether it local or National for the sender.

I am presuming we would be able to select the area the Fax DID was in from a similar list to your VOIP DIDs?

[ForumAdmin]

Yep, a cheap incoming fax service would be great - I still run into the odd business that can only send faxes, not emails..

Would it be a local call for them to fax to me? ie is the number they would be faxing to a melbourne one, or another one that only costs a local call to send to?

The DIDs are STD coded so it depends on whether it local or National for the sender.

I am presuming we would be able to select the area the Fax DID was in from a similar list to your VOIP DIDs?

Yes.

[hornet48]

I am interested in a Brisbane based fax service - when it becomes available.

I understand Brisbane DIDs will become available next week?

[ahas]

Sounds great.
I will definately sign up for it when available & get rid of my fax duet number (currently costing $6 / month)
All I would then need would be local DID's to be available for VOIP, rather than state capitals, i.e. DID in Bendigo Vic

[danmac]

Package was part of their "defender" campaign aimed ay Optus (who they thought i was with, based on who they are renting the line to).
Package Cost - $59.95 per month
Free Wifi Cable modem
12GB monthly download limit,
8Mbps download speed
Land Line rental
10c local calls
$1 capped std calls
$1 capped mobile (can't remember if this was only to telstra)
Cheap international calls
$180 credit on my account
Catch - 24month signup