[comp.dcom.telecom] Unitel FacsRoute With Modems

gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca (Paul Gauthier) (11/22/90)

	The company I work for just held a joint conference locally
with Unitel and I was able to corner one of their reps to ask about
the use of Unitel's FacsRoute with modems. They say it will work
perfectly and don't mind in the least if you do it.

	For $9.99 a month (no installation fee!) you get a little
black box which goes between your modem/fax and the phone jack on the
wall.  When you make an outgoing LD call it dials in to a local Unitel
office and you are patched through to their network and your LD call
is completed by them. They claim savings of 40% over regular phone
rates. If you're making more than, say, $30 a month in LD calls to
Canada from within Canada (I think he said it offered discounts to
some US calls, not sure, call and ask) you really have nothing to lose
by giving it a try. I don't believe you are obligated to continue
using it if you ever find the service unsatisfactory.

	Drop a line here and let me know if you try it and how much
you save.


gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca   tyrant@dalac.bitnet    tyrant@ac.dal.ca


[Moderator's Note: Can you please give us the number to call for
information on this service, with contact names if possible?   PAT]

scott@uunet.uu.net (Scott Campbell) (11/23/90)

>In article <14718@accuvax.nwu.edu> gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca (Paul
>Gauthier) writes:

>>  A Canadian Company has recently begun to offer a special reduced
>>rate to fax users. The user pays only a small monthly fee ($10, I
>>think) and receives a little black box which attaches to their fax
>>machine.  .... <much stuff deleted>

>>  Does anyone know if such services actually detect and interpret fax
>>protocol to decide whether to axe the call? 

I spoke to someone at Unitel today in their service department.  He
told me that the little box detects whether it is a voice call or a
modem call.  If the black box decides you are talking on the data
line, it just kicks you off. (I didn't think to ask him about the case
where you have one fax operator doing a voice request because of a
problem.)

Apparently, modems up to 2400 baud will be counted as a fax by the box
so you could use it as a data line.  However, high speed modems, he
said, caused problems; the box would sometimes confuse the data as
voice and just boot you.  The Courier HST was one in particular that
had problems.  He did not seem to know for sure about the Telebit PEP.

If anyone has any experience at all in this, I would really like to
hear it.


Scott J.M. Campbell           scott@skypod.uucp
Skypod Communications Inc.    (416) 961-3847
57 Charles St. West, #1310    Toronto, Ontario
  {problem|becker|torag|nyama}!skypod!scott

gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca (Paul Gauthier) (11/23/90)

In article <14917@accuvax.nwu.edu> gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca (Paul
Gauthier) writes:

[40% reduction in LD for $9.99/month from Unitel Canada]

>[Moderator's Note: Can you please give us the number to call for
>information on this service, with contact names if possible?   PAT]

I have a business card from the gentleman I was speaking with:

 J. Michael Curry
 [Account Representitive]

 Business: (902)429-9065
 Fax: (902)429-5493

 He is in the Halifax office.


gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca    tyrant@dalac.bitnet   tyrant@ac.dal.ca

psmith@cs.uwindsor.ca (psmith) (11/28/90)

In article <14917@accuvax.nwu.edu>, gauthier@ug.cs.dal.ca (Paul
Gauthier) writes:

> the use of Unitel's FacsRoute with modems. They say it will work
> perfectly and don't mind in the least if you do it.
 ...
> [Moderator's Note: Can you please give us the number to call for
> information on this service, with contact names if possible?   PAT]

Unitel's Sales office in (at least) SW Ontario is 1-800-265-7814.
Nobody there right now (7pm EST); guess they're not in Vancouver. :-)


Peter Smith