Packetel Joins MyFax

What’s up with Packetel? I’ve been using their service to receive faxes for years.



Packetel is an eight-year-old company based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among its telecommunications services, it has offered electronic fax delivery and as recently as summer 2009 was adding features (such as Fax Alert via SMS text message) to its low-priced, receive-only service.

On Sept. 19, 2009, Packetel announced that it has become part of MyFax, an established Internet fax service with more than 300,000 subscribers. (Longtime Internet fax users may remember MyFax as Virtual Fax. It is owned by Protus, a Canada-based communications company founded in 1997.)

Packetel promises customers that existing “pFax” accounts will transfer over to MyFax with no interruption in fax delivery. According to a Packetel press release, the subscription rate won’t change for existing customers, and pFax customers won’t be subject to the typical MyFax limit on incoming faxes. New potential fax customers arriving at the Packetel Web site will be prompted to sign up with MyFax via a special link.

With the change comes a key feature that wasn’t available under the old Packetel plan: the ability to send faxes via email.

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