An Introduction to Internet Fax Service
When someone says “internet fax service,” your first reaction is probably to pause and ask if the speaker really knows what they’re talking about. Big smelly fax machines are a staple in most businesses and home offices, and the sound of a fax machine whirring as it scans the document and pipes it over land-based telephone lines is one that most everyone has heard at one point in their lives. Faxing is so common that copy shops incorporate it as part of their services, charging a quarter or more per page for faxes.
So what then is an internet fax service? It’s simple – it’s a fax service that uses the internet instead of a land-based telephone lines to transmit your documents. When you stop and think about it, it becomes a natural transition. You can send emails with attachments over the internet at your leisure, why shouldn’t you be able to send the same documents via fax? Since the early 2000s, several vendors have risen to the occasion to provide this very same service. They have met with great reception, such that internet fax services are now commonplace and practically commoditized.
That all sounds good and well, but why then should you switch to an internet fax service? There are reasons for it and there are reasons against it. If you already have a fax machine and a land-based phone line, then it’s a harder argument to switch. You’ve already made an investment, why change now? It’s the same argument as it always is in business: cost. Yes, you have a fax machine, but you are always buying more paper and toner, costs which start to rack up once your faxing volume picks up. Switching to an internet fax service eliminates these costs altogether; your ink-related purchases become constrained to your printing costs for those faxes you deem worthy of creating hardcopy for. Also, once you switch to an internet fax service, you can get rid of your land-based phone service, something many people with online presences have started doing. Why keep paying long distance costs when you can switch to VoIP or pure wireless and pay a flat rate? That, however, is the subject for another article!
Some of the internet fax service vendors offer online dashboards with which to monitor your fax usage. Almost all of them offer international faxing, at a higher rate per page, based on the destination of the fax. Some also provide the ability to send faxes from your mobile phone. It’s important to note here that all offer the ability to fax by email, so if you’re equipped with a smart phone, you can fax from your mobile phone with ANY of the internet fax services out there.
Exploring internet fax services is a risk free affair as well. You can retain your current setup, whatever it is, and pick one of the many 30 day free trials that are available in the internet fax services space. As with any trial offer, you have to be diligent in monitoring your usage and time so that you don’t start getting charged, unless of course you want to keep the service, in which case you can keep faxing away. Always keep in mind your intended fax usage, as you can keep your costs down by purchasing a package that will cover your faxing needs. Sending and receiving are split into different pricing structures, as are the more advanced features, such as fax broadcast and vanity numbers.
The bottom line is that by switching to an internet fax service, you can streamline your online presence by eliminating paper clutter, hardware clutter, and supply clutter. You can organize your sent and received faxes just like you do your email, reducing the possibility of misplacing or forgetting about an important client communication. And, of course, you can save money, which is always important in any competitive marketplace.
Filed under: Online Faxing
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