While the cost of transport between points A and B is the overhead burden of the monthly bandwidth expense, the second cost to get to points C via Y is a transport charge paid to a telecom carrier that owns the connection to country C. Those combined costs (X+Y) will usually be higher than the cost of sending a fax from point A to C over the public Internet.
To illustrate, assume there are two faxes originating in Capetown, South Africa, one destined for Zurich, Switzerland the other destined for Cairo, Egypt. A real-time fax network might have leased capacity from South Africa to the U.S. where the fax would be handed off to a carrier to transport the faxes to Zurich and Cairo. The cost of the bandwidth is probably in the $5,000 to $7,000 per month range for a 64 Kbps line. This effectively brings the per minute charge for the cost of transport to the U.S. to about $.08, at full capacity. The leg Y charge to Zurich from the U.S. is about $.06, and about $.65 to Cairo based on average calling costs. That's a total of $.14 to Zurich and $.73 to Cairo. By contrast, the cost on a store-and-forward fax network (from Capetown to Zurich or Cairo) will be about $.02 to Zurich and $.03 to Cairo assuming network nodes exist in those locations. In highly-competitive, high-volume routes, (between the U.K. and U.S. for example) there may be little or no distinction in incremental cost although there is a significant difference in the capital at risk.
Conclusion
If the needs of the client call for a real-time fax solution, a store-and-forward fax service will not be acceptable. However, the cost of providing a real-time faxing network architecture may or may not be economically feasible depending upon the competitive environment. On the other hand, if the client is price- and/or value- conscious, a store-and-forward solution may be the best alternative. In any event, both orientations exist in the marketplace, which means that both real-time and store-and-forward fax services will most likely continue to flourish, side by side.
Dennis Miga is chief executive officer of INTERFAX LP. Founded in 1995, INTERFAX is a privately-held provider of international network services via the Internet. Through its proprietary, UNIX-based network, INTERFAX offers quality fax services at discount rates on a worldwide basis. More information on INTERFAX can be found at