VOIP fax is one of the many features of voice over internet protocol that is currently being developed. It hasn’t really been getting its share of the limelight as of yet because there are lots of difficulties that still need to be addressed, though it is not as problematic as the other VOIP predicaments such as continuous service during power failures. One major cause of the difficulty is the difference in voice and fax data.

Voice data are audio samples that are transferred from one computer to another in real-time, where two persons make conversation. There is data compression, packetization and redundancy involved. There are other also other processes that deal with data loss, filling up the gaps in order for audio to be transmitted. Fax data, on the other hand, is data transmission that can be delayed but needs to make sure that there are no errors in data transmission or otherwise the whole data is totally lost.

Attempts to solve this problem have been made but these solutions haven’t been quite effective. Methods such as making the VOIP transmission speed slower or using special CODECs or changing Voice over internet protocol settings sometimes work but not all the time. Some suggest sending fax messages via e-mail having fax service, which advances it to a real fax machine, while others apply fax setting changes. It is all trial and error at the moment. This is why most VOIP service providers do not offer the VOIP fax option yet to their consumers. It seems that we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.