Facsimile telecommunications system and method
View Patent ↗A fax processing system handles faxes that are originally destined for a recipient's phone number. The fax processing system communicates with the fax recipient via a data communications network (for example, the Internet) and can provide more sophisticated fax handling capabilities than conventional fax machines.
1. A fax processing system, comprising:
a fax management subsystem coupled to a public telephone network to receive a fax call for receiving a fax message at a subscriber's phone number;
a database subsystem to store subscriber records for determining whether a called number associated with the fax call is registered to a subscriber; and
an online detection subsystem coupled to the Internet to determine availability of a subscriber data device for fax notification service at a network address,
wherein the fax management subsystem is to transmit a fax call notification that is separate from the fax message to the network address in response to a determination that the subscriber data device is available, and wherein transmission of the notification begins without waiting to receive an entirety of the fax message at the fax manauement subsystem and wherein the notification is to give an indication to the subscriber that the fax call is in process at the fax management subsystem.
2. The fax processing system of claim 1 wherein the notification includes a phone number of a sender of the fax message.
3. The fax processing system of claim 1 wherein the fax management subsystem answers the fax call to establish a two-way path, after having transmitted the notification.
4. The fax processing system of claim 1 wherein the fax management subsystem is to obtain from the database subsystem an identifier for a sender of the fax message, using a phone number of the sender, and wherein the notification is to display the identifier.
5. The fax processing system of claim 1 wherein the fax management subsystem is to receive an instruction from the subscriber for handling the fax message, wherein a display of the notification includes options for fax handling instructions, the received instruction having been selected from the options in the display.
6. The fax processing system of claim 1 wherein after transmitting the notification, the fax management subsystem is to begin streaming the fax message to the network address as the fax message is still being received by the fax processing system.
7. The fax processing system of claim 1 wherein the notification is transmitted immediately after it has been determined that the subscriber data device is available for fax notification service at said network address.
8. The fax processing system of claim 1 wherein the fax management subsystem, in response to the fax call being terminated, is to signal completion of fax transmission by sending a control message to the network address which is then displayed by the subscriber data device.
9. The fax processing system of claim 1 wherein the subscriber's phone number terminates in the fax processing system.