Billed as the “real-time” fax over IP protocol, the T.38 fax is designed specifically to work just like traditional faxing — even though it isn’t.
While the T.38 fax maximizes the benefits offered by operating over Internet protocol, it also offers a number of benefits that are easy on both the wallet and the workplace.
T.38 is as simple to configure and establish as it is to use, especially because it does away with PSTN phone jacks, which are replaced with fax servers. Moreover, its ease of use extends to a wider recipient list, as T.38 enables the user to transmit faxes to multiple recipients simultaneously with the use of its fax over Internet protocol.
The T.38 fax is definitely kinder to the pocketbook, as faxes transmitted through an IP network don’t have need of the PSTN, which automatically significantly trims fees that result from long-distance calls. Just like Skype, which eliminates the use of phone lines to speak “on the phone,” the T.38 fax makes use of Internet technologies to change the face of traditional faxing.
As a flexible protocol, the T.38 fax is a benefit to users who want to establish Internet-protocol faxing into their voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, networks. Not only is this an ideal option for consolidating and converging technological workplace methodology, but a wonderful opportunity for customers to lower the cost of overall Internet protocol maintenance.
An additional major plus of the T.38 fax is that it requires less bandwidth than does other types of IP faxing, which is a significant benefit for the lowering of costs.
Last but certainly not least, T.38 offers a great deal of both security and reliability with point-to-point safe and secure real-time transmittal.
How the T.38 Fax Protocol Works
The T.38 fax is all about making the most of transmitting and receiving information on faxes for a packet-switched network.
Simply put, packet switching is a digital networking communications term that defines the act of configuring data into ideally-sized boxes of information, or “packets.” Packet switching is actually the delivery of the packaged data over a shared network. The data is delivered in streams that feature variable bit rates.
Faxing over Internet protocol, or FoIP, essentially changes the method of transmittal just as VoIP transforms the means by which telephone calls are performed.
It’s worth noting, however, that unless you’re transmitting a fax within your own company, the T.38 fax will use Internet protocol only to the extent that it can. In other words, while the fax is transmitted via FoIP, it will still have need of a PSTN gateway for delivery to its intended recipient.
Regardless, FoIP still reduces transmission costs and is an ideal option for a business with available existing bandwidth or network that covers a sizable range.
