What’s the latest in wireless fax machines?
Are they ever going to make fax machines truly wireless and are they coming soon?
A lot of “all-in-one” machines that include scanners, printers, and fax machines claim to be wireless these days, but most of them still require the machine to be plugged into a phone jack in order to send or receive faxes. That can be problematic if the fax machine needs to be in a place that has no access to a phone line. Fortunately, if you need absolutely wireless faxing, you have a few options.
The cheapest way to do wireless faxing would be to pay for a service such as MetroFax.com, an application for smartphones that allows you to send and receive faxes as an email attachment on your phone. The service translates your documents to fax format so that you can send them to any fax machine you like, or print them from a computer. MetroFax.com and other programs like it are monthly or yearly services.
If you really want a wireless fax machine that can send, receive and print faxes without a phone line, there are options (although they aren’t cheap.) A good example of a truly wireless fax machine is Possio’s Greta GSM Fax and Printer The Greta is a portable fax machine, scanner, and copier that can be hooked up to a laptop or used independently. It has GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology so that it can receive cellular signals, plus a 50-foot roll of paper for printing out faxes. Basically, it’s a big cell phone that can receive and print faxes. It allows you to send and receive faxes from anywhere, even when traveling, but that means you’re reliant on a good wireless signal. The Greta is currently marketed in Europe and is intended for sales representatives and service engineers who are on the road a lot and who work from vehicle offices.
Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.