At times, faxing may seem so 20^th century. But the fact is that faxing remains a vital tool for many 21^st century companies. Many businesses have attempted to bring this technology into the modern computing age by hooking fax machines to a PBX (News - Alert) using a T1/E1 connection. This posed a problem, though: because the analog fax machine interface wasn’t synchronized with the PSTN timing, faxing worked inconsistently at best.

 

Now, this lack of synchronization has been eliminated. Sangoma Technologies (News - Alert) on Monday announced what it claims is the industry’s first, cost-effective solution designed to support fax over PC-based T1/E1 digital phone systems. Instead of having to provision a separate, external analog line for faxing, companies can now fax using a PC-based phone system and a T1/E1 connection.

 

How is this possible?

“Sangoma's latest firmware revisions include an option for the analog card to receive its clocking from a T1/E1 card via a simple two-connector cable,” Sangoma CEO David Mandelstam said, in a statement.

 

Mandelstam further elaborated: “Because the T1/E1 card runs on the network clocking, the analog card that connects the fax machine to the network also becomes completely synchronized, allowing for perfect, error-free faxing without any of the glitches caused by imperfect timing.”

 

He went on to say that this new solution represents a true breakthrough because it lets larger offices make proper use of their T1/E1 lines, and stop spending extra time and money managing analog capacity solely for faxing.

 

“Fax connectivity remains an absolute requirement for businesses, especially for mission critical documents like legal contracts,” Mandelstam added.

 

Sangoma designed this fax solution to be software agnostic; it works with any operating system or application, including FreeSwitch, OPAL, Asterisk (News - Alert), CallWeaver and Yate. After June 1, 2007, all Sangoma shipments of T1/E1 cards with hardware echo cancellation will come with built-in, synchronous fax support. This solution is designed to also solve similar synchronization issues with modem transmission.

 

Ontario, Canada-based Sangoma Technologies provides connectivity hardware and software for VoIP, TDM voice, WANs and Internet infrastructures. The company, which was founded in 1984, develops and manufactures data and voice communications products. Its portfolio of solutions includes a series of Advanced Flexible Telecommunications (AFT) T1/E1/J1 voice and data cards designed to keep up with the demands of today’s soft PBX, IVR and VoIP applications.

 

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