What is a fax phone number is asked by someone looking at a contact page or a letterhead that lists two numbers, one labelled phone and one labelled fax, and wondering whether the second one can be called. The fax phone number is the line the business has set aside for receiving faxes, answered by a machine or an online service rather than by a person. This page explains the fax phone number meaning, what the word fax means in a phone number listing, and what to do with each of the two numbers.
What does fax mean in phone number listings
On a contact page the labels tell you which listener sits on each line. Phone, tel or voice means a person or a voice mail system answers. Fax means a fax device or service answers and expects pages. Sometimes a business lists one number for both, which means the line has a switch that detects fax tones or a service that handles both; more often the two are separate, and frequently consecutive, because they were ordered together years ago. What does fax mean in phone number terms is therefore nothing about the number itself and everything about the label: it is the number to send pages to and not to call.
What is fax phone number use today
The fax phone number on a hospital's or agency's page is still live because the office receives forms that way and because the confirmation a fax gives is accepted as proof of delivery. The number may no longer end at a machine: many offices have moved it to an online service that answers in a data centre and delivers the pages to an inbox, and the caller cannot tell. For the sender that changes nothing. Type the fax phone number into an online fax service, attach the document, and send; the service places the call and returns the report. Sending to the voice number instead gives the receptionist a burst of tones and gives you a failed report.
Getting a fax phone number of your own
A business that receives faxes needs a number of its own, and the way to get one without a phone line or a machine is a plan from an online service, which includes a number and answers it around the clock. By the entry prices the vendors print in the Fax Line Index that is Fax.Plus at $6.99 a month with 200 pages and one number included, CocoFax at $9.99, MetroFax at $11.95 with 550 pages, iFax at $12.49 and WestFax at $14.99 with 500 pages. A business that already has a fax number can port it in so the letterhead stays correct; WestFax prints a $20 one-time fee per number for porting.
Questions people ask about what is a fax phone number
Is the fax phone number the same as the office phone?
Usually a different line listed beside it. Where one number serves both, the line detects fax tones and routes the call; check the label before dialling.
Can I get a fax phone number without a phone line?
Yes. Online fax plans include a number the vendor answers from its data centre. Fax.Plus prints one fax number included at $6.99 a month.
Why does the fax number ring and then screech?
That is the fax answering and sending its handshake tones. It is working; it is waiting for a fax, not a voice.