Despite some obvious advantages, Internet fax is looking more and more like a role player in the business service portfolios of network operators. Fax also is one of the first critical business applications, besides e-mail, that can use the public Internet. Yet, all those benefits aside, service providers aren't making a mad dash to offer Internet fax service.
Arbitrage is a time-sensitive proposition.
Analysts now say that Internet fax will serve as a springboard to more profitable value-added services. For example, network operators are likely to offer Internet fax as part of a bigger package of services for telecommuters or remote offices, rather than as a stand-alone service. But before they relegate Internet fax to a supporting role, service providers have to put the technology in place to deliver service in the first place. Its IP LaunchPad Fax Suite also is being trialed by IBM Global Services, the Net2Phone subsidiary of IDT, Interpath Communications and UUnet Technologies, which says it will start selling UUfax Internet fax services off the platform by midyear. Microsoft, which has a minority investment in Open Port, is working with the company to build Internet fax capabilities into its NT server products.