On Thursday 17 Jul 2003 7:21 pm, Anne Wilson wrote: > That certainly seems to be the position, but I question whether it's > really impossible. After all, a fax is only a bit stream (isn't > it?), so could be transmitted just like any other bit stream. The > problem is in the telephone number that the fax is sent to. Perhaps > the solution would be to map a telephone number to an ip address? If > my isp can offer it as a free service even on pay-as-you-go accounts > it can't be a costly business.
There is no link between the Internet and the phone system. No amount of local software will route traffic between the two as there is no link. Any such link has to be provided by someone or some company with hardware connected to both. Traffic on the Internet is free, but as soon as the traffic hits the phone network it starts to cost money. In the USA a gateway in every local area would make it free, but would be costly for whoever implemented it. In other places even local calls cost money. Such a technology would be in danger of shortcircuiting the phone companies' cashflow, so they'd fight it. With incoming traffic there is a solution where the originator pays a slightly higher cost, virtual national rate numbers that give a small kickback to the providing company. But for outgoing traffic the originating computer must pay for the call, or it must be born by the gateway. I don't see how any company could incur charges and offer the service free, especially if some of the traffic involved long distance phone calls. At some point in the next few years micro-payments will be sorted out and outgoing traffic through a commercial gateway could be made next to transparent; pay-per-use with a cost only slightly higher than the phone call involved. But also within a few years the fax will be redundant. Who uses telex any more? OK, it's not impossible. If you could put a gateway in every country and negotiate a flat rate with the local phone companies, and that flat rate still made it commercially viable. If the technologies involved limited the usability to faxes then maybe you could get the phone companies to let it go. > Just thinking - but for a project for someone to tackle, I reckon > there's a big demand. My grandfather used to say that only two > things are impossible - to whilstle and laugh at the same time, and > to play a fiddle with boxing gloves on. Now there's a challenge. Where can I lay my hands on a pair of boxing gloves... -- Richard Urwin
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