The future of VOIP gets better with the convergence of voice and data networking. Many businesses be it big, medium or small, make use of the fax technology even today. Network fax technology requires specific hardware configurations, fax hardware and installation and a connection between the fax server and the public telephone network. All this is now possible with the introduction of Fax over VOIP (FOIP).

Many protocols have been designed to enable Fax over VOIP. Two of the common protocols are g.711 and T.38. When a fax signal is been detected by the service provider, the most appropriate protocol will be automatically used. Some of the VOIP service providers offer fax services with VOIP lines. If a customer subscribes to a business package, he gets a free fax line as a part of the package. 

Customers subscribing for a residential package need to get a fax line at an additional cost. The monthly fee includes limited number of minutes for sending faxes and unlimited minutes for receiving them. Outgoing faxes later need to be paid for once the free monthly quota gets exceeded. This is a great advantage for businesses where they may have to send many faxes to their clients worldwide. The rates for sending Fax over VOIP are cheaper than regular fax rates.

When opting for Fax over VOIP, a few things need to be kept in mind by the customers. The first thing is to check if the service providers support any of the above faxing protocols. If they support it, they can guide the user in modifying the settings of the VOIP devices to the appropriate protocol. 

The second thing to take into consideration is the baud rate. Many of the VOIP providers usually support up to 9600 baud rate. For using the Fax over VOIP facility, the customer will need to adjust the band setting on his fax machine or software. Installing fax equipment is quite simple. It only requires plugging in the fax machine into an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA), which in turn gets connected to a broadband modem. 

Another option available for customers is to use efax services. Efax allows users to send and receive fax via emails. This service may be available with the VOIP packages. If not, then the customer can sign up with other companies who offer the efax services.

Fax over VOIP is very cost effective since it can help users save money. Many businesses use this service to send faxes worldwide.