Fax Featured Article

Over the years, newly introduced technologies continue to overtake legacy offerings as seen in the example of how we used to watch videos on VCRs and now watch our favorite shows and movies via discs that play on DVD players. However, the same cannot be said in regards to fax as this solution continues to be leveraged by businesses all over the globe.

Georgia-based Commetrex (News - Alert) has been in the fax industry for nearly fifteen years and is always enhancing its portfolio which now products such as FaXTap for SIP, an innovation that targets the FoIP analysis and lawful intercept markets and enables network operators and equipment vendors to analyze FoIP calls and render the image with ease even if the call uses a high-speed V.34 fax modem as well as NetGen Communications, Inc., a spin-off of Commetrex Corporation, who has introduced version 2.0 of its Smart ATA product, complete with Commetrex’s patent-pending Smart FoIP.

The fax provider was recently an exhibitor at the just concluded ITEXPO (News - Alert) Austin 2012, a semi-annual event that took place from October 2-5 at the Austin Convention Center in Texas. According to Mike Coffee, CEO of Commetrex, one of his favorite things at the show was Smart ATA, a next-generation standards-based voice fax gateway. Touted as the industry's first analog telephone adapter to include T.38 version three with V.34, it is the only ATA that offers reliable FoIP when making calls to carrier networks.

David Greenwald, the product’s team leader said in a statement, “Since carrier-based FoIP calls begin as a voice call, the two endpoint fax terminals can ‘hear’ each other early in the call as soon as the connection is established. At that time, they begin executing the T.30 fax protocol. But if the carrier is late in attempting to switch to T.38, it will unwittingly kill the fax if the calling gateway does not have Smart FoIP. And multi-page failures in G.711 FoIP are all too common. Smart FoIP eliminates them by making all multi-page faxes appear to be multiple single-page faxes. Problem solved!”

It was at this widely attended conference that the Commetrex booth was visited by many attendees and “Smart ATA was a spectacular hit among the ITSPs trying to deploy FoIP,” Coffee added. Moreover, the fax provider won the coveted Best Service Provider Solution award within the prestigious Best of Show Award program for its Smart FoIP solution.

After realizing the organization would be receiving this award, he commented, “We literally jumped for joy!”

Looking ahead to the future of the fax space, right now there is some decrease happening within the enterprise market, yet service provider demand for FoIP solutions that work that allow them to stop saying, "keep your POTS lines for fax," to their subscribers appears to be a major play for Commetrex and its sister company NetGen Communications, Inc.