There is talk at the highest levels of telecom of when to unplug today’s public switched telecom network (PSTN)for the final move to an all-IP global network. But that cannot happen unless and until the vast installed base of fax terminals can continue to reliably send and receive fax in real time as is done today. And, after extensive testing by the SIP Forum, an association, primarily, of equipment vendors, and the i3 Forum, comprised of nearly 40 of the world’s largest telecom carriers, fax-over-IP (FoIP) in international calls is not reliable enough to support the coming transition. 

Today, we are talking with Mike Coffee, CEO of Commetrex Corporation Alpharetta, GA, a supplier of FoIP technologies to the industry and the co-chair of the SIP Forum’s FoIP Task Group, about what is being done to make FoIP ready for the coming PSTN-to-IP transition.