How can I send and receive a fax on the internet? That was the question I needed to answer when I ditched my landline phone. I don’t use faxes too often but I have a small personal fax machine, which has become a big paper weight.

Nowadays most things can be done email or sending a scanned document by email. Still, there are some people/companies that prefer faxed documents. So, I went searching for some info.

Can I Send a Fax via My Cell Phone?
It looks like it’s difficult. Even though I remember my old old Sprint cell phone, my very first cell phone, had some documentation about connecting the cell phone to a fax machine, at this time and at least in the U.S., it’s not an option unless you are using a wireless carrier that supports GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and have a GSM cell phone. AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM system while Sprint and Verizon use CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). I am a satisfied Verizon Wireless customer because of their network quality, so I’m not going to drop Verizon just to be able to send a few faxes a year.

howstuffworks.com has an interesting article about using a cell phone camera to take a pic of a document but it just sounds too tedious.

Internet Fax via Email
There are many internet fax services on the internet now. Basically, what you do is to send an email with an attachment to the fax service provider and they will convert the attachment so that they can send the document to a regular fax machine. You can also receive a fax through the internet fax site. Here are some major internet fax services.

• eFax
  eFax Plus costs $16.95 (USD) per month, with a one-time $10.00 (USD) fee to activate your number. You get 130 pages of incoming faxes free each month. Outgoing faxes cost $0.10 (USD) a page to numbers in the U.S. Incoming faxes cost $0.15 (USD) a page.
• myfax.com
  $10/month or 30 day trial.
• faxzero.com
  Offers free fax. Max 3 pages per document and max 2 faxes per day for free. Their premium service costs $1.99 per fax, max 15 pages.
• MetroFax
  Monthly Fee — $12.95 per line
  Activation — $9.95
  Toll Free — $2 extra per month per line
  Included Pages — 1000 inbound/outbound (combined)
  Per-Page –3¢ after 1000 pages
• FaxAway
  * There are no set-up fees for a Faxaway account.
  * You may allow as many as 250 email users access to your Faxaway account at no additional charge.
  * There is a small account maintenance charge of $1 monthly.
  * Those enrolling with a credit card are charged a fixed deposit of US $10.00 upon activation.
  * Sign-up using a check or money order for a minimum of $100.00.