Had Verizon FIOS installed. Unable to fax. Fax machine takes forever to connect to remote fax and after sometime I will get "Communication Error". Receiving faxes will do the same. With Verizon DSL I Never had problems connecting to remote fax. Error messages generated by fax machine indicate "communication error". Verizon claims that FIOS should not affect Fax at all and there is nothing they can do to fix this problem.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

SFranky
Norwalk, California

FIOS is using VOIP to deliver the phone line(s), unlike the traditional copper that was used before. VOIP does not carry fax or modem traffic very well, if it carries it at all. You'll probably need to have them reinstall your fax line on a copper pair or you will be pulling your hair out..

Around here Verizon won't put a fax or modem on FIOS, they leave the copper in place. These were all businesses and apparently yours is a residential install so they weren't paying attention or didn't care. I have seen faxes work with FIOS but it appears to be unreliable.

Take it up with Verizon.

-Hal

Verizon Tech told me recently , once verizon took the line to fiber they wouldn't put it back on cooper ,the concept being they want to migrate everything to fiber
also once you have fiber service they wouldn't install a new copper line .

this was just a friendly conversation about FIOS in a Phone room so I don't know if that is strict policy

I'm sure that's correct. But when they know a line is for a fax they will leave it on the copper. So I guess this guy is screwed, FIOS won't work and they won't switch it back to copper.

Like I said, take it up with Verizon.

-Hal

I must be one of the lucky ones. We have FiOS at home and I haven't had problems with data transmission.

I don't think FiOS is VoIP per-se. Isn't it still POTs service but delivered via fiber as opposed to copper :confused:

Did you sign for Verizon Voicewing as well? You get a POTS-to-VOIP adapter for the FIOS connection. In general most such adapters (and Voip services) have problems with analog faxing. If you're lucky, you'll find an adapter that's compatible with FOIP (fax over IP) as well as FIOS - or failing that with T.38 which is a fairly well implemented standard that also works most of the time.
My recommendation: get a regular old POTS line and avoid the headache.

Not really sure what the transmission method is. I remember that there are three separate carriers- telephone, internet and video. So voice has nothing to do with data. But why burst the VoIP junkies bubble?

-Hal

I think that's right, Voip would be an application on top of FIOS - like the Voicewing I mentioned above. I remember reading several White Papers from Verizon regarding FIOS years ago. I may have them somewhere. But if I remember correctly, there was to be a single hardware supplier (at least originally?), and it's a shared loop like cable. There were similarities also with DOCSIS, the cable modem protocol.

Did you sign for Verizon Voicewing as well? You get a POTS-to-VOIP adapter for the FIOS connection.

They will sell that to anybody with any broadband connection, not just their FIOS. Just trying to compete with Vonage et al.

-Hal

Thanks to all. As far as I know, I did not sign for Verizon Voicewing. The only reason I had FIOS installed was to improve download and upload time over regular DSL. VERIZON Tech said that once they took the line to fiber, they wouldn't put it back to copper. In other words I'm totally screwed with no simple, cost effective solution to my problem. This is my Home Office Fax Machine by the way. Thanks again for your help.

...no simple, cost effective solution to my problem.

Sure there is. Put those new FIOS lines to good use and keep busting Verizon's you know what until they fix it. There is nothing that says that you can't have a fax machine in you house. There is always the PSC or PUC or whatever California calls theirs.

-Hal

That's the truth. You should be able to use a fax machine on any POTS line or one that is derived through FIOS. It should be fairly easy to prove this by taking the same fax machine to your neighbor's house who is still using copper and show them that it works over there.

Of course, their rocket scientist repair "technician" will try to blame it on your inside wiring. That's their favorite excuse; the very same wiring that they may have installed as recently as last week. It doesn't matter, inside wiring in a residence that is installed properly doesn't just "go bad" after switching over to FIOS or any other service provider.

You need to insist upon speaking with a supervisor and if you reach a dead end, which you will (Verizon employees are drones), register a complaint with the state, county or city's telecommunications regulatory board.

You need to do this now before the number of complaints gets to be so great that Verizon figures that this matter is out of hand. They will blame this on you because "you never said that you needed to be able to send a fax when you ordered the service". You won't be the only one.

They will then come up with a way to pay-off the politicians to keep the customers off their back. At that point, your problem will never go away. I urge you to register your complaint now. Coming here for advice was a great idea, but now you need to go back and fight them while you can.

People are jumping all over that high speed Internet and quality picture. They are seeming to forget the quality and capabilities of their phone line. Please check back and let us know how things progress.

I have an inexpensive all in one printer/scanner/copier so I scan a document, save it to .pdf then use myfax.com (which is also inexpensive) for internet faxing.

Just wanted to give you an alternate solution if they do not give you back a copper line.

Thanks to Larry for sharing this valuable information.
Larry wrote:
I spent countless hours listening to all the excuses Verizon provided as to why I was unable to fax. Per their instructions I tried 5 different fax machines and repeatedly changed settings on each. Verizon sent techs out on separate occasions concluding that FIOS was working properly and couldn't understand why there was a problem faxing. After several weeks of torture (and my threatening to sue) a Verizon representative came to our home stating that he was "the end of the line", that there was no one else "higher up" in with Verizon organization with the FIOS system. He brought a tech with him and declared that they were not leaving until the problem was solved. Over two hours later the "higher up" did some grumbling, apologized profusely, and determined that there was, in fact, a problem with the Motorola equipment in the switching station. Unable to fix the problem he placed our phone back on the old copper system, maintaining FIOS for internet and television. Have not had a problem since. FIOS is great. Fax works as it should, telephones work without static (had that with DSL), and HDTV is amazing.