Short answer: for an organization, copper retirement is not about "the fax machine" but about a whole estate: devices, numbers, analog ports on the phone system, often a fax server, and business software that faxes in the background. In Canada, incumbent carriers such as Bell and Telus are retiring copper area by area as fibre becomes available, under the regulatory oversight of the CRTC. Treat it as a proper project: take inventory, choose between T.38 and G.711, settle the target architecture, coordinate your sites, plan for continuity, and test. For occasional sending, a web service such as FaxTelecom takes part of the hardware out of the picture.
FaxTelecom sends faxes from a browser to landlines in seven countries: Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It neither assigns numbers nor receives faxes: it covers sending, not receiving. Information about carriers comes from their public statements; confirm the plan for each of your addresses directly with your provider.
Why fax deserves its own project
Telus states that it retires its copper network once its fibre is available in a community, and that moving to fibre or a wireless option is mandatory for customers inside a copper-retirement boundary. Bell is also replacing copper with fibre across much of its territory. There is no single national cut-over date: it arrives neighbourhood by neighbourhood, carrier by carrier, and often province by province for an organization with offices across the country.
That has two consequences. Your sites will switch at different times, sometimes with different carriers. And fax copes poorly with voice over IP: it is a conversation between two modems (the T.30 protocol) that voice compression and packet loss can easily break. Our guide to the copper switch-off explains the mechanism, and how faxing works walks through the handshake between machines.
Step 1: take inventory
You can only migrate what you know about. Walk the offices, check the cabling records and the phone system configuration, and note for each item whether it sends, receives, or both. That distinction drives every later decision.
| What to list | What to record | Common trap |
|---|---|---|
| Standalone fax machines | Model, location, number, pages per month | A machine forgotten in a server room or a nursing station |
| Multifunction printers with a fax card | Firmware, maximum speed, ECM setting | Fax card still active, number still on the letterhead |
| Fax numbers | Carrier, line type, where the number is published | A cancelled number still printed on forms and the website |
| Analog (FXS) ports on the phone system | Which device sits behind which port | A port shared with the alarm dialler |
| Fax server | Software, modem or ISDN cards, email integration | A hardware card with no IP equivalent |
| Applications that fax | ERP, pharmacy, lab and dispatch software | An automated send whose path nobody knows |
| Other equipment on copper | Alarms, elevator phones, payment terminals, remote monitoring | An elevator line on the same pair |
Also list the people and organizations that fax you regularly: you will need to tell them if a number changes.
Step 2: choose the transport, T.38 or G.711
Over IP, there are two ways to carry a fax. The choice depends on your SIP provider as much as on your hardware.
| Criterion | G.711 passthrough | T.38 |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | The modem audio travels uncompressed at 64 kbit/s | The device demodulates the fax and sends the data in dedicated packets (UDPTL) |
| Loss tolerance | Low: a short burst of loss drops the page | Higher, thanks to redundant packets |
| Requirements | No silence suppression or compression; fixed jitter buffer | Support along the whole path: ATA or gateway, phone system, carrier |
| Typical use | A well-managed local network, a provider without T.38 | Long paths, multiple sites, a fax server on a SIP trunk |
Either way, cap device speed at 14,400 bit/s (V.17) and avoid V.34, which handles IP poorly. Test error correction mode (ECM) both on and off: depending on the chain of equipment, one setting or the other works better. Our fax glossary defines these terms.
Step 3: settle the target architecture
There is no single answer. Most organizations combine two or three building blocks:
- One ATA per device. It connects an existing fax machine to a SIP line. Cheap for a handful of devices, as long as the model supports T.38 and is configured the same way everywhere.
- The IP-PBX or SBC gateway. Remaining analog ports go through the phone system, which handles T.38 towards the carrier. One place to configure, but a heavy dependency on that box.
- A fax server on a SIP trunk. It replaces modem or ISDN cards, delivers incoming faxes to mailboxes and sends straight from the ERP. The route for high volumes and automated workflows.
- Hosted fax (fax-to-email). The number is ported to a provider and no longer depends on a line. Suited to receiving numbers that have been published for years; see your options for receiving faxes.
- A web sending service. For occasional sends from any workstation, FaxTelecom is enough: one PDF up to 100 MB, no account, no software. Cost: €0 for a one-page document, a flat €3.99 incl. VAT from the second page on (even for 40 pages), and €2.99 incl. VAT if you add the PDF receipts.
Before deciding, count how many numbers actually receive. Often one central receiving number plus a shared sending tool replaces a dozen machines. For a single home office or a small clinic, our article on faxing without a landline in Canada covers the simpler setup.
Step 4: coordinate multiple sites
With several sites, the retirement schedule becomes the main risk. A few rules help:
- keep a table per address, with carrier and access type, updated with every carrier notice;
- standardize one ATA model and one configuration file so every site behaves the same way;
- centralize receiving on a server or a hosted number, and port existing numbers rather than changing them;
- pick a pilot site that switches first and serves as the reference;
- do not count on LTE or 5G backup links for fax: transmission over them remains unreliable.
Step 5: plan for continuity
Copper had a quiet advantage: the line was powered from the central office. On fibre, the optical terminal, router and ATA need power on site. A UPS sized for that equipment stops a power cut from taking fax down with it.
Write a short fallback procedure: who does what if an urgent send fails, which channel to use (web sending, the recipient's secure portal or online account), who tells your contacts. Then watch the failure rate in the server or adapter logs: a sudden rise often points to a configuration change on the carrier side. For what a transmission report proves, read our article on proof of fax transmission; for sensitive data, the fax security guide sums up what the protocol protects and what it does not.
Sample timeline
| When | Actions |
|---|---|
| First carrier notice | Inventory, architecture choice, budget |
| Six months before | Order hardware, request number porting, pilot site |
| Three months before | Roll out the standard configuration, brief staff |
| A few weeks before | Final tests, message to regular contacts |
| Cut-over day | Check every device, send a multi-page test fax |
| One month after | Review failures, fine-tune, retire old equipment |
IT checklist
- Full inventory of devices, numbers, FXS ports, servers and applications that fax.
- For each number: sending, receiving or both.
- Written confirmation from the SIP provider on T.38, or failing that on uncompressed G.711.
- Speed capped at 14,400 bit/s, ECM tested in both positions.
- One ATA model and one configuration across all sites.
- Number porting requested before the retirement date.
- UPS for the optical terminal, router and adapters.
- Written fallback procedure and a backup sending channel ready.
- Three test sends per site, one of them multi-page (preparing the PDF properly helps).
- Regular contacts told about any number change.
Bottom line
Copper retirement is an infrastructure migration like any other: inventory, transport choice, architecture, a per-site schedule and a fallback plan. Receiving numbers need the most care, usually through a hosted service or a fax server on a SIP trunk. Occasional sending no longer needs hardware at all: a browser and a PDF will do. The countries you can reach are listed on the destinations page.
Topicspstnvoipdestinations
