Patent ID: 8737386

Claim:
A fax delivery apparatus comprising: an internet receipt mechanism to receive a fax-destined internet communication, the fax-destined internet communication comprising a receiving address further comprising destination identification information; a fax server determination mechanism to determine whether an outbound fax number is served by a local fax server, the destination identification information being associated with the outbound fax number; a fax format converter to convert data of the fax-destined internet communication to a fax formatted message; a dialing device to dial a destination fax device over a telephone line connection; and a normal fax standard communications device to send the fax formatted message to the destination fax device over the dialed telephone line connection, wherein: when the fax server determination mechanism determines that the outbound fax number is served by the local fax server, the local fax server is contacted and is configured to directly dial out and send the fax formatted message, and when the fax server determination mechanism determines that the outbound fax number is not served by the local fax server, the fax server determination mechanism is configured to determine whether a delivery call costs less as intra-lata or as inter-lata, and based on the determination regarding the cost of the delivery call, the fax server determination mechanism is configured to contact a target fax server to dial the destination fax device via a cheaper call selected from a group consisting of an intra-lata delivery call and an inter-lata delivery call and send the fax formatted message.