So why does faxing over VoIP not work?
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 10:31 am
In today’s world of predominantly digital and online communications with business VoIP providers, the fax may seem old fashioned. But, although very few people now use faxes outside of work, quite a few industries still actually depend on it. This may be due to regulatory requirements, data security compliance, privacy laws, or simply because suppliers/partners in other countries still use it.
Some organisations may brazil telegram send faxes very rarely (perhaps a couple of times a year), while it could be part of standard daily activity for others. Regardless as to the situation, the ability to deal with faxes is an important consideration when looking to switch to a VoIP system. This is because sending faxes over VoIP lines (with analogue machines at either end) doesn’t actually work!
There are two main reasons why faxing over VoIP lines with analogue machines doesn’t work. They are detailed below:
1. Compression/audio codecs
One of the main reasons that VoIP is more efficient is that it takes voice data, compresses it, and converts it into data packets that can be sent over the Internet. This makes it tricky to send faxes because the initial compression makes the data unrecognisable at the other end. Audio codecs that do not utilise compression are, therefore, better at supporting faxing than others, but do use more bandwidth.
2. Jitter, latency and packet loss
Transmitting data over the Internet will often result in packet loss, jitter and latency. This means that some data packets won’t reach the destination. For faxes, this means that the document won’t be able to be reassembled. This happens irrespective as to the speed of the Internet connection.
Some organisations may brazil telegram send faxes very rarely (perhaps a couple of times a year), while it could be part of standard daily activity for others. Regardless as to the situation, the ability to deal with faxes is an important consideration when looking to switch to a VoIP system. This is because sending faxes over VoIP lines (with analogue machines at either end) doesn’t actually work!
There are two main reasons why faxing over VoIP lines with analogue machines doesn’t work. They are detailed below:
1. Compression/audio codecs
One of the main reasons that VoIP is more efficient is that it takes voice data, compresses it, and converts it into data packets that can be sent over the Internet. This makes it tricky to send faxes because the initial compression makes the data unrecognisable at the other end. Audio codecs that do not utilise compression are, therefore, better at supporting faxing than others, but do use more bandwidth.
2. Jitter, latency and packet loss
Transmitting data over the Internet will often result in packet loss, jitter and latency. This means that some data packets won’t reach the destination. For faxes, this means that the document won’t be able to be reassembled. This happens irrespective as to the speed of the Internet connection.