Without doubt, facsimile (or commonly, fax) is one of the most important innovation in communication technologies. It does not matter how big your business is and what's your business nature; the ability to fax is just a must-have for every business owner. 

While the needs on faxing are compulsory, the attendance of conventional fax machine is not a must nowadays. By utilizing high speed Internet connection, we now have an alternative in fax-communication - Email fax (or also known as Internet faxing). With the rapid growth of Internet users worldwide, the appearance of Email faxing provides a powerful alternative for the conventional faxing machine. On June 24, 1997, the first commercial Email fax service was introduced by InternetPaper (SM). The industry never looks back since then and Email fax turned out to be one of the most widely used communication methods.

How does Email faxing works?

Email fax works on the same principles with conventional facsimile transmission, but it uses a web interface instead of a fax machine. With Email faxing, faxes are sent out and received as Email attachment on a web inbox - just like how Email works. The different between Email fax and Email is that Email fax has the ability to transform a normal Email attachment into a fax hardcopy on the receiver's end; or vise versa, transform a fax hardcopy into an Email attachment.

Cost of Internet faxing

Conventional facsimile transmission requires paper, an extra fax lines as well as a fax machine; which easily summed up to a few hundreds of initial cost. In contrast, Email fax requires much lower setup and operation fees. Depends on different Internet fax service providers, Internet faxing normal requires $0 - $15 setup fees. Monthly service subscription fees range from $10 - $20.

Advantages of Email fax

Besides being cost effective, there are many other reasons why Internet faxing is such popular. Conventional fax machine users often get frustrated with the fax machine regular problems, such as paper jam, cuts off page text, and fax transmission failure. Such problems always cost a numerous time (long waiting time for the engage tones), money washed out (lost of business due to miscommunication).

These problems are solved as soon as Email faxing comes into the picture. Internet fax served as an easy faxing method where the service is 24 hours ready, no more engage tones, and no more paper jamming. Faxes will always send out and arrived smoothly via your email account without any cost of extra phone line.

Further more, mobility is another selling point for Email faxing services. All Email faxing service needs are a PC (or a PDA) with Internet connection and an active Internet faxing account. Theoretically, you are able to send faxes in anywhere, anytime. That's quite a different when you compare the service with conventional fax machine where you'll have to rush back to your office every time an urgent fax arrives.

Bottom point: Is Email faxing a go for you?

Without doubt Email faxing services are here to stay. The services simply solved all the troubles with a conventional fax machine thus I don't see any reason Email faxing should be removed from the communication technology. There are, nevertheless, several potential down turns, lack of local numbers for certain service providers, hard to operate for senior employees, redundant cost for those who've been using conventional fax for decades, that might stop you from trying the new technology. However, these problems will not be a permanent issue for the industry as more and more vendors are getting onboard and combating for the business. Such healthy competition will eventually solve those drawbacks.

Need guides in picking up the right Internet faxing service? DumbShopper's comparison guide on fax to email services is very helpful. With the help of the reviews, you can simply pick up the Internet faxing vendor right for you in just a few minutes.

Article by Claudia.