Does etherFAX Support Call Forwarding?
This article discusses whether etherFAX supports call forwarding.
Info, Notes and Warnings
Call Forwarding is the process in which an originating carrier dials a recipient where that recipient then routes the call to an alternate route, one that is not a part of the original dialing.
The originally dialed recipient is known as the Forwarding Carrier or the forwarding leg.
Question
Does etherFAX Support Call Forwarding?
Answer
etherFAX does not support call forwarding.
etherFAX does not offer services in which call forwarding to routes outside of the etherFAX platform is possible.
Additionally, etherFAX does not support call forwarding your route to an etherFAX route.
Why?
etherFAX does not support call forwarding for a number of reasons.
Primarily, it is due to the fact that call forwarding often results in a degradation of quality in the received fax image.
By avoiding a direct connection to your etherFAX route, call forwarding then becomes dependent on the quality on that of the forwarding leg. When this occurs, the benefits of etherFAX’s infrastructure become diminished as it is not the one primarily facilitating the connection.
You may see lower baud rates along with the lack of ECM as a result, two potential key factors preventing a fast, quality fax image.
It may also be a potential bottleneck in concurrent connections.
etherFAX can sustain multiple incoming fax calls to your numbers without issue. When it is not the recipient that is initially dialed, those benefits can be lost where the limitation lies within that of the forwarding leg.
Additional to this, call forwarding obscures fax statues.
Often times, senders receive fax statuses that may indicate that their faxes went well. Having received successful confirmation that the forwarding leg completed the fax, senders may believe that their faxes went well. With a forwarding leg, this may not be the case.
It also obscures the route being forwarded to’s ability to discern whether fax image quality issues derive from the originating carrier to the forwarding leg or if it had occurred between the forwarding leg and itself.
Solution
For quality and high availability, we recommend porting your number to the etherFAX platform.
In doing so, your faxes will enjoy the many benefits of our infrastructure where our support team can more readily troubleshoot issues.
Ending Notes and Details
To port your number to etherFAX, follow the instructions here: How to Port a Route to etherFAX.