All Minutes are Not Created Equally
When comparing rates, be sure to compare capabilities also!

Sometimes a lower rate per minute can actually result in higher costs because some fax broadcast providers can not or do not send faxes at the fastest possible speed supported by the receiver's fax machine. There are two major manufacturers of high-end fax equipment used by many (but not all) fax service providers. These are Gammalink and Brooktrout (we use Brooktrout). Some companies use standard fax-modem boards, like the one in your PC, and I've not yet found one which supports all the advanced features we'll discuss.

The speed at which a fax gets transmitted is mostly dependent upon the receiver's fax machine. Most fax machines support either a maximum speed of 9600 Baud or 14,400 Baud. Baud equates to bits per second and a fax transmitted at 14,400 baud may go as much as 33% faster than one transmitted at 9600 Baud. Some fax providers are using older equipment which supports a maximum speed of 9600 Baud; even with a lower rate per minute, your faxes take longer to send, and it ends up costing you more. Based upon data collected, we find that over 50% of fax machines will support the faster 14,400 Baud transmission.

Also, important is the receiver's ability to support advanced compression, sometimes referred to as 2-D or Modified Read (MR) compression. In our testing, we find that 2-D compression can improve fax transmission by 20-30%, and about 75% of fax machines support 2-D compression. If your fax provider's equipment doesn't support this feature (or they have disabled it), your jobs cost more to send.

Lastly, faxes can be sent in different resolutions. The two most widely supported are usually referred to as "standard" and "fine" (you may also see options on your fax machine for "superfine" and "half-tone" modes). Each step up in fax transmission increases the time it takes for faxes to be sent. For example, a fax sent in "fine" mode will take almost twice as long as a fax sent in "standard" mode. Often the fax received isn't much different at all. Many fax service providers will send out your fax in the same mode that you sent it to them. This means that if you send a fax to them in fine mode, they will send it out in fine mode, which ends up costing you about twice as much. In response to customer requests, we have implemented a process which automatically converts a fax received in fine mode to standard mode with little or no loss of quality (NOTE: we can disable this feature on request). This means your jobs will always be sent in the mode which supports the fastest transmission speed possible.

These three factors are the most important in determining the fastest fax transmissions possible. There are many other technical issues but they have relatively minor impact.

Summing up, the three most important questions to ask a fax service provider (other than rate per minute) to be sure your costs of faxing are minimized are:

1. Does all your outbound fax equipment support 14,400 Baud transmission? (Faxts NOW does)
2. Does your outbound fax equipment support 2-D (MR) compression? (Faxts NOW does)
3. If a fax is submitted for broadcasting in fine mode, do you send it in fine or standard mode? (Faxts NOW converts from fine to standard with little or no loss of quality)