FoIP Deserves the Compensation

Imagine a society where your local coffee shop or restaurant was without wireless internet? I would probably search for a new coffee brand in order to save my cell phone bill from excess data charges. Even worse, imagine if your own internet connection in your house was inaccessible for two months?

The German Federal Court of Justice in Karsruhe has recently ruled that an internet connection is so essential to daily life that when inaccessible, users are eligible for compensation. Despite this exciting progress for internet-lovers, the ruling abstained from rewarding compensation to the plaintiff for his loss of VoIP, FoIP and DLS. The ruling explained that fax usage is limited and ‘irrelevant’ compared to email.

As you might have thought, I disagree with the idea that fax is ‘irrelevant’ and I’d be interested to hear a response from packaging, transportation and distribution companies who rely on FoIP every day. What if the plaintiff owned a small business and relied on FoIP to send and receive secure legal documents? Compensation for an inaccessible internet would not have made up for the costs that he absorbed for two months without FoIP.

I know my opinion won’t change the ruling of a German Federal Court, but it is important to point out the stigma that fax is irrelevant. We need to remember the dependence that healthcare, insurance, small businesses and many other industries have on mission critical and secure document distribution through fax.

Here at Quadrant Software, we envision a world where the internet, FoIP, VoIP and DLS expands into all public areas. Two years ago, I would have thought that the ability to send or receive a secure fax right from your mobile phone was a dream. Yet here at Quadrant Software we are taking the first steps, in conjunction with SAP, to send and receive mission critical documents over your mobile phone simply using a VPN with our product QuadraDocV5. QuadraDocV5 allows users to automate formatting, routing and faxing via SMTP and a variety of platforms. Since 1990, we have prided ourselves in our efforts to innovate the Fax Server industry and by introducing QuadraDocV5; we again prove leadership in the industry.