The Internet has made communications easier, cheaper and faster as technology continues to improve and evolve. Voice over IP (VoIP) allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. One accessory that comes with Internet communications is an analog telephony adapter (ATA). An analog telephony adapter is a device used to connect one or more standard analog telephones to a digital and/or non-standard telephone system, such as a VoIP-based network.
An ATA usually takes the form of a small box with a power adapter, one Ethernet port, and one or more FXS telephone ports. Users can plug one or more standard analog telephone devices into the ATA and the analog device(s) will operate, usually transparently, on a VoIP network.
A Fax ATA allows fax machines to connect to a variety of fax service providers, VoIP telephony providers (that support T.38), business fax server vendors, and premises-based VoIP solutions. Fax is imperative for a number of different industries such as healthcare, insurance and legal, as enterprise content management becomes the next-generation extension of fax. Using IP technology to send and receive faxes can reduce the amount of paper, and hassle, associated with document transmission.
An ATA-type device handles all of the tasks related to providing a telephone-line experience while talking over an IP network, and will typically have a Web server that will allow you to configure the device on your computer.
ATAs are used by many VoIP companies selling a telco-alternative VoIP service, where the device is used to replace a user's connection to a traditional telephone company. The most common ATA is a box with at least one Foreign Exchange Station (which includes a telephone jack), used to connect a conventional telephone, and an Ethernet jack used to connect the adapter to a LAN. Using such an ATA, it is possible to connect a conventional telephone to a remote VoIP server. The ATA communicates with the server using a protocol such as H.323, SIP and MGCP, and encodes and decodes the voice signal using a voice codec such as G.711, G.729, GSM, iLBC or others.
To learn more about the advancement of fax communications and unified communications via the Internet, the Fax ATA channel will stay up to date on the latest industry news, trends and resources.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson