Packet8 Trials new fax technology

VoIP provider Packet8 has supported FAX as a built-in feature on all of its residential voice plans for some time. FAX is currently transmitted using a “best efforts” uncompressed CODEC (short for COMpression/DECompression algorithm). What this means is that if your network connection experiences any packet losses, which is a common occurrence on the Internet, your FAX transmission may not successfully go through.

The company is about to take this to the next step, however, announcing that they are currently beta testing a new technology that will enable 100% reliable VoIP FAXing. They have inked a deal with a carrier who will be supporting this FAX protocol nationwide in the U.S., and they expect to have this capability up and running soon. This will be the culmination of a 2 year effort!

Little guy moves up the chart!

PC World Magazine did an exhaustive review of VoIP providers for their September issue, and the results were surprisingly good for one of the smaller players, Packet8. Priced at just under $20 per month, Packet8 came in number 2 just below AT&T, which is $10 more monthly. The full list, with monthly prices in parentheses, is:

1 AT&T CallVantage ($30)
2 8x8 Packet8 ($20)
3 Comcast Digital Voice ($55)
4 Vonage ($25)
5 Verizon VoiceWing ($35)
6 AOL Internet Phone Service ($40)
7 Lingo ($20)

The article pointed out that while every provider had "...reliable call quality, except for an occasional glitch...", both Comcast (considerably more expensive) and Packet8 provided "...great audio quality...".

For a summary, including the value proposition visit Internet Calling Plans - How they Compare.