Methods and apparatus for forwarding facsimiles by phone and/or E-mail

A communications method for use in a telephone network including a telephone switch, service control point, and telephone switch peripheral device, comprising the steps of:

• setting a terminating attempt trigger at a telephone switch on a telephone line corresponding to a first telephone number;
• in response to activation of said terminating attempt trigger by a first telephone call, operating the telephone switch to contact a service control point for call processing instructions;
• operating said service control point to instruct the telephone switch to connect the first telephone call to the telephone switch peripheral device;
• operating the telephone switch peripheral device to answer the first telephone call and to then determine if the first telephone call is a fax or voice telephone call;
• if the first telephone call is determined to be a fax telephone call,
• generating a file including a fax communicated by said first telephone call;
• delivering said file including a fax via E-mail;
• operating the telephone switch peripheral device to retrieve a fax telephone call forwarding telephone number from a set of stored subscriber information;
• and
• forwarding the first telephone call using the retrieved fax telephone call forwarding telephone number to thereby deliver said fax to a subscriber device via a call in addition to delivery via E-mail.

A communications method, the method comprising the steps of:

• operating a telephone switch to detect a call to a telephone number corresponding to a call forwarding service subscriber;
• connecting the telephone call to a peripheral device coupled to the telephone switch;
• operating said peripheral device to:
• i. answer said call;
• ii. determine if the answered call is a fax telephone call or a non-fax call;
• iii. if it is determined that the answered telephone call is a fax telephone call, connect the call by a telephone line to a facsimile device corresponding to the call forwarding service subscriber while monitoring the telephone call to receive a facsimile message delivered to the facsimile device;
• and
• iv. send an E-mail message including said received facsimile message to thereby deliver said facsimile by an E-mail device corresponding to said subscriber in addition to delivery to said facsimile device corresponding to said subscriber.

A fax forwarding method, the method comprising:

• for each of a plurality of fax forwarding service subscribers, creating a subscriber record including:
• at least one telephone number corresponding to a telephone line on which the forwarding service subscriber may receive a fax call;
• fax forwarding by E-mail status information indicating whether faxes are to be forwarded by E-mail;
• fax forwarding by telephone status information indicating if faxes are to be forwarded by telephone;
• and
• an E-mail address to be used to forward a fax received by answering a call directed to said at least one telephone number;
• monitoring a plurality of said telephone lines on which fax forwarding service subscribers may receive fax calls;
• and
• in response to receiving a call on one of said monitored lines:
• determining if said received call is a fax call or a non-fax call;
• if the received call is determined to be a fax call and the fax forwarding by E-mail status information indicates faxes are to be forwarded by E-mail for the monitored line on which the call was received, determining from the subscriber record corresponding to the telephone line on which the fax call is received, an E-mail address to be used for forwarding a fax received on said telephone line;
• and forwarding by E-mail, using the determined E-mail address, a fax received on said telephone line;
• and
• if the call is determined to be a fax call and the fax forwarding by telephone status information indicates faxes are to be forwarded by telephone for the monitored line on which the call was received, forwarding said fax call to a telephone number indicated by the subscriber record corresponding to the telephone line on which the call was received.