I read that Home Phone Connect does not work with incoming or outgoing faxing. Is there any hope this will change? I would love to get the service, but I have an all in one printer, fax, scanner, copier that would now be partly useless.
jillflinton wrote: I read that Home Phone Connect does not work with incoming or outgoing faxing. Is there any hope this will change? I would love to get the service, but I have an all in one printer, fax, scanner, copier that would now be partly useless.
I would be almost certain that this will not change, at least not in the near future.
I've heard FAXING over VOIP is difficult. If Verizon ever pulls it off, I'd consider switching!
Mobile voice, in a manner similar to VoIP, compresses signals to conserve RF (or IP in the case of VoIP) bandwidth. For VZW, CDMA Enhanced Variable Rate Codec B is ideal for human speech, but performs poorly for pure sinusoidal signals such Group 3 Fax or DTMF (Touch Tone). You can observe sinusoid signal distortion by establishing a call between a landline and a mobile phone and listening the to reception of the DTMF (TouchTone signals). Since DTMF is generated locally in a landline phone, it is subject to EVRC-B encoding and sounds very poor at the mobile receiver. The DTMF signals of the Mobile phone are generated at the interface to the PSTN by network equipment based on digital representations of the digits pressed on the mobile.
Sooo, to make a long story short, unless there is some breakthrough in the Group 3 standards, Faxing over mobile or VoIP will
not happen any time soon.
Great technical response. However I disagree with one component....
I currently have Time Warner VOIP home phone... and you can Fax :smileyhappy:
So Faxing over VOIP works right now.
While your explanation is techincally correct, it sounds like you may have retired prior to learning about T38.
Fax is certainly supported over mobile networks and is covered in the 3GPP specs (as well as LTE).
It is slowly gaining support but doesn't get much attention since Fax is a very small portion of data traffic these days.
Happy November community members!
I see that this is a topic that has peaked the attention of the community and I would like to provide some additional info on this topic. As great as the home phone connect service is, there are some limitations with it. Below is a list of such limitations.
Fax Machines, Collect Calls (send and receive), and DSL Dial Up
Medical equipment, including pacemakers
Home security systems
Personal security services, including Lifeline and Life Alert
Credit Card Machines.
Rotary phones and pulse dial not supported.
In case anyone has any additional questions about the benefits and features of home phone connect, here's a link for your review.
http://shop.verizonwireless.com/?id=Home%20Phone%20Connect
As always, if any information that is unclear, don't hesitate to reply to this message for clarification.
Thank you...
I would seriously like to request that Verizon return to the attitude of the responder just above this post -- meaning that Verison will look in to the matter. Next please show you are making concerted effort toward the necessary changes to provide the more critical of these services.
What Arnett has done is restate the obvious rather than providing clarification about WHY faxing is not supported at this time along with several other things. Faxing is still pretty popular and secure electronic faxing will become more so in certain businesses required to protect privacy. Some of these other items on the list might in fact be more critical from a safety standpoint. If they are going to in any way be an alternative to a hard-wired landline many of these including digital medical equipment, security, lifeline and life alert.
It is not really helpful to tell us what Verizon doesn't do. What is helpful is for Verizon management to notice
1. That there is a significant and legitmate need not being met.
2. There are indeed ways this can be done over a wireless connection as demonstrated in above responses and by the behavior of competing service providers.
3. That it would be wise to provide solid information about steps being taken to accommodate these needs when you have it within your power to do so.
Thank you, Marquia, for showing an interest in investigating. Thank you Annett for confirming that Verizon doesn't suppport options they, in fact, seem able to support. May I ask you to continue investigate further how to expand your efforts to care for you customers -- realistically there are probably dollars in it for you? Particularly, as a physician I can say there are reason for us to recommend something that makes lifeline and lifealert more readily available to seniors or others with special needs!!!
Hi Gwendolyn,
Initially it was frustrating for me too that the HPC doesn't support faxes but I have found a pretty good solution using electronic faxing though my computer and scanner instead of my phone line. By using my scanner and computer I've eliminated the need for a dedicated fax line at a substantial savings. Here is a link to an evaluation piece comparing the different services available: http://faxing-service-review.toptenreviews.com/ --you may find something to meet your needs.
Since most correspondents to whom I currently fax also have e-mail accounts I have been sending more of my scanned images as e-mail attachments rather than faxes. In addition to sending better resolution quality than a faxed document--I can also send full color documents. I expect that at some point I'll no longer need to fax anything and will use e-mail attachments exclusively. One really nice thing I've learned is that I can send the messages and attachments encrypted which cannot be done on a fax. I don't know much about the HIPAA rules but I would think that encryption would be a plus for anyone subject to them.
After setting up my HPC, I was talking to my dad about the service and compared it to his then existing home service. The biggest problem for him converting to HPC was his home security system which needed a land line to work. We contacted the security system provider regarding their solutions and they offered a wireless solution that was going to cost an additional $10 per month-- which really didn't seem very reasonable. This caused me to research other wireless security options and I found several that were more competitively priced. I re-contacted the current security system provider to see if there were any more cost effective options with them--which there weren't. So, we decided to change service providers, the one we selected was at this address: http://simplisafe.com/ -- by using the HPC and changing security companies we reduced my father's home phone and security system monthly cost by >50%.
Working with a Verizon Wireless store representative we found a great work around to my dad carrying or wearing a medical alert device-- which was simply programing a speed dial to the local EMS # into both my dads' mobile and HPC connected phones. Verizon does now offer a phone with a dedicated 911 emergency key. But, since he is used to how his phones are set up there's not any reason to change to this type of phone.
I hope this information is of some use to you.
FM
Thanks FM for your attention to detail in providing some answers. I do already use an electronic fax service for some things and agree it has its benefits. Likewise the ideas for maintaining the security service and the EMS calls are very thoughtful. I very much appreciate your taking the time share/
I still strongly feel however that Verizon should not be expecting customers to struggle through these work-around when there are enough people with the need to have a simple, direct and straight to the target solution. Some elderly (the typical users of life line) will not be able to figure them out nor have gracious relatives to accomplish. An injured person with dementia who as fallen is not the person who should be struggling with remembering the work around much less designing it.
Also, with fax. I do have online fax and use one service for work. Nonetheless this is much more time consuming for some items that should be able to be very rapidly processed as single or stack on a device intended to be a multi-function printer.
If the technology were impossible that is one thing. It doesn't appear to be, though.
Again thanks for your thoughts. And I hope Verizon will itself make this unnecessary so we can all direct our creativity toward other projects.
I have been using FAX services with VOIP via Vonage for years. I have a home phone connect for my mother, but haven't tried the FAX on it. I suspect it would actually work. What I do with Vonage is I use a USB fax modem hooked up to the computer to send and receive faxes, and the modem is connected in parallel with the phone line. Been using that setup for at least 6 years.
I suspect that they make that claim because they don't support it, but that may not mean it doesn't work.
Some of you might want to consider opening an e-fax account; they offer a free trial at http://www.efax.com/Free-Trial?VID=38867.
I've had an "in-bound only" (because have very little need for out-bound faxing - - which I can do from my office if/when necessary) e-fax account for several years now; it comes with a local phone number that allows me to receive fax messages via my regular e-mail account.
I could upgrade the account to enable out-bound faxing, but have so little need for out-bound faxing, that for me, it wouldn't be worth the added cost. :smileyhappy:
http://curebit.com/x/tM0Fk I use this on my Verizon and Sprint / Boost HTC Drod's, home, & office internet computers that solved my fax problem for me and my team. B. J. Crum Freight Brokerage. Any one can start for free or get a local and toll free # for around $60.00 US per year. This fixed my broker, contract carrier, shipper, and receiver signed faxing night mare. Works great with gmail, google drive, & box cloud services, etc. Try it free for ever what have you got to loss but the faxing blues!
well i need to clarify a couple of issues with pacemakers, ICD and some other medical devices. At this time Medtronic, and St Jude make an adapter to allow their home monitors to function over wireless devices, there is an additional cost. I am not sure about Boston or Biotronik. Sorin's home monitoring was designing specially around wireless so it will absolutely work. I am sure it is a simple modulation of the frequency domain. analog phones are dying so the device companies are changing equip... a whole lot slower since obama just slapped a 2.35% tax on bottom line (gross) sales. it isnt hard to deal with the compression and freq.
i am a 21 year pacemaker rep and scientist.... more importantly i would worry if obamacare will continue to pay for it and for replacement devices after youre 80... that is already being discussed... along with orthopedics, as Obama responded when a lady asked if obama care would pay for her mother's pacemaker... his response was "she might have to take pain meds and bear it". pretty stupid, if your heart isnt beating you dont need pain meds cause youre dead or dying.
The home phone connect device or its phone line is not compatible with faxing but your Verizon jet pack or hot-spot enabled smart phone will provide a Wi-Fi connection that a laptop or PC can use to connect to the internet. Then to your computer add your everyday magic jack that plugs right into a USB port and provides a dial tone that works with your "all-in-one" printer/fax machine or any fax machine. You will need to pay for a data plan of some sort but for limited faxing, a GB is plenty for 30 days worth of faxes.
You can use Faxzero.com to send 3 pages at a time for free, 2 faxes per day. They also allow you to send more than that for I think $1.99. I have I used Efax to send and receive as many as I need for $12.95 per month. I've been using this service for years and it's flawless. Hope this helps!
I purchased Home Connect probably the first week it was available, I asked the phone rep if it was compatible with alarm system and fax, I was assured of that. I called back the next day and another rep puts me on hold for few minutes, answers back that it was compatible. At the time the alarm system company hadn't heard of VHC. Anyways, I was upset for months with verizon and will still ease out of the contract as soon as dates roll around. Right now I use fax/copier/scanner/printer as I scan documents, save and send via email, most contacts are ok with that. Lately I use Genius scan on smart phone and send via email. As for home security, I went with a wireless system that isn't connected to land line in any way. Verizon is behind on this matter and for that matter I will drop all business with them $258 monthly as soon as our last contract date arrives.
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