Withdrawal of fax service due to acquisition of telco supplier by J2 Global Inc

We write to you today to inform you that due to the recent acquisition of YAC's Fax Services division by J2 Global the existing 0871 and 0870 fax services provided through YAC are being withdrawn at the end of November 2007.

An intermediate offering will be available on the J2 platform from November, however this will follow the J2 product line as the YAC services are being terminated with effect from the J2 take over.

We have been working behind the scenes to try and find a suitable alternative which allows you the customer to keep your number without losing the functionality that you benefit from today, however this has not been possible to date and the deadline for the switch over is rapidly looming so we felt we should at least let you know in advance and that we do have some alternatives available.

For some time now we have been working to develop our own in house solution which does not require a 3rd party supplier such as YAC. We already have several thousand subscribers on this new service, and it is working well. We had hoped to be able to port your number(s) across onto this new service, however owing to delays and regulatory issues it will simply not be possible to do so before J2 acquire the numbers and move you onto their new service under new terms and conditions.

The alternative we can offer is if you are an affected customer and wish to retain a fax2email service with FidoNet (as opposed to move to J2 and utilise their new services) we can offer you a 0844 number on our new platform.

0844 numbers have a number of benefits over 0871 not least of all they are not classed as "premium rate" numbers and are also accessible from most telcos worldwide (in a similar way to 0870's currently). Obviously this number would be provided with no setup costs, and we would also start your 12 month subscription again from the day of the migration, giving you a number of months "for free".

Our 0844 service normally costs £50 to setup and £75 / year so as you will see this is a major saving already. By way of further compensation we will offer you this 0844 service to affected 0871 subscribers at the same rate as the current 0871 service - £25 per annum plus VAT and to affected 0870 subscribers with 12 months service added on free of charge.

This offer is of course only available to those of you migrating your existing 0871 numbers onto the new platform.

If you wish to avail yourself of this offer please complete the online order form

On behalf of FidoNet I can only apologise for the need to effect this change, but assure you we feel it is the best solution all round.

Your existing fax numbers will continue to work on the J2 "free" service for a while, however you will need to use the J2 browser to view faxes and will no longer be directly supported by FidoNet Support.

This regrade offer is valid until November 18th 2007

More information can be found in our FAQ