Fujitsu"s South Africa Internet service provider (ISP) division recently launched a fax to e-mail service called GetaFax.

According to Fujitsu"s head of Virtual Internet service provider (VISP) Practice, Bill Keenan, the solution is suited to both the enterprise and the SME user. "All the user requires in order to use the GetaFax solution is a connection to the Internet and an e-mail client," he says. "The service eliminates the need for a fax machine and the associated costs with owning one."

Presently, Fujitsu offers three versions of GetaFax. The first version enables a user to sign up for an ?0860" number. This, the company says, does not cost the users anything, and will enable them to receive faxes directly into their e-mail client. "Users give this number to anyone wanting to send a fax to them, the sender then pays 1.77 rand (US$0.28) per minute and the receiver does not pay for anything," he says.

The second offer from the company is for the user to apply for an ?011" fax number. This number will cost the user R500 per annum, and allows for the receipt of up to 1 200 faxes. "When sending to this number, the sender will pay standard Telkom rates," says Keenan. "Also, with this number the user can receive local and international faxes," he continues.

The last offer by Fujitsu is for the user to apply for a ?084" number. This is intended to enable the user to receive unlimited local and international faxes. "The user pays an annual fee of R295, but the sender pays cellphone rates when sending a fax," he says. The user will receive the fax in a TIFF format in his or her ?Inbox" and Fujitsu offers the option of SMS notification once a new fax arrives.

Should the user want to send a fax from e-mail, credits need to be purchased from Fujitsu beforehand. According to the company, the price of sending a local fax via GetaFax will cost about 77c per minute, and that of an international fax will range from R3 per minute as opposed to Telkom"s R4,02 per minute.

"Once a user hits the send button, the e-mail is sent to our server, it is then converted to a fax format and sent to the designated recipient," says Keenan. "Users are able to send just about any type of document, including plain text, bitmaps, JPEGS and Microsoft Word and Excel documents. Once processed, the user is notified if the fax transmission was successful or not," he concludes.