A new way to fax Symantec rolls out real-time, cost-saving features via the Internet >BY CHRIS BUCHOLTZ, West Coast Bureau Chief

In a further challenge to traditional public switched networks, an updated desktop software package to be released this week will let callers send faxes via the Internet to any fax machine or PC in real time.

Symantec's WinFax PRO 7.5 software gives users a way to send long-distance faxes for the cost of a local call and simultaneously retain all the advantages unique to faxes, said Michael Brookbank, senior product manager for Symantec's Delrina Group.

"For businesses, it's a matter of presentation," he said. "You can't put your logo on an e-mail, for instance. But there are other important considerations about faxes people overlook. Fax is real time, and both the sender and receiver can verify whether transmission has been successful immediately because the fax machine tells them."

Past products using the Internet route have suffered because of e-mail's inherent time delays caused by the Internet's non-deterministic routing. The new software effectively eliminates delays by using a real-time fax protocol, which establishes a peer-to-peer link between the sender's PC and the receiver's PC or fax machine.

The software features a setup wizard that allows users to choose between the public switched network and the Internet for their faxes. While this choice is transparent to the user, the software employs two distinct processes to complete the call.

If the user chooses the public network, such as for a local call, the software handles the fax as any other fax modem-based software would. When the user chooses the Internet, the software compresses and encrypts the fax and delivers it to a server that routes it to the NetCentric POPware server closest to the final destination. NetCentric's Fax Storm service then makes a local call to the fax machine or PC to complete the transmission.

The cost of sending a fax via the Internet from anywhere in the world to a U.S. destination is 15¢ a minute, Brookbank said. For faxes sent from the U.S. to international destinations, the software provides a discount of anywhere from 30% to 80% of the standard long-distance rates. These discounts are especially appealing to companies that need to transmit high-quality images over long distances quickly.

"Many of the faxes we broadcast are presentation-quality documents," said Mark Bates, president of British-based computer development company Edge Data. "Using WinFax has ensured that everything we fax is sent at the maximum resolution and looks its best."

The advent of practical fax software signifies yet another Internet challenge for business telecommunications markets that carriers now dominate. Faxes represent as much as 40% of business telephone use, and International Data Corp. forecasts a 28% annual growth rate from 1995 through the end of the century, despite the widespread use of e-mail.

"It's like radio, which survived the advent of the television," said Brookbank. "Fax and e-mail will both exist in the modern office-they'll just do different things."

Analysts agree, although they're quick to point out that the real battle will become one of which software is used-desktop software like Symantec's or software that carriers distribute to business customers.

"Fax over the Internet is a market that is already lucrative and is only going to become more attractive," said David Goodtree, director of telecommunications strategies at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. "The balance between Internet and traditional fax usage is going to depend on how long it'll take the big carriers to respond with similar services and how well the software companies can market these new fax products."