Professional Conference Call Services

Conference calls are used within the business and professional world to communicate with parties that are spread across various locations.  Modern conference call systems are extremely scalable, allowing for communication between a few individuals or thousands.  Some of the most common applications include project meetings, sales presenations, training classes, and issue of a public corporations quarterly report.  The primary benefit of a phone or video conference call over a recorded presentation or webcast is the audience's ability to interact with the speakers.  Conference calls services vary significantly in features and pricing and in the following article we will take a look at the some of the options available.  We will also briefly discuss the availble conference call equipment.

 There are a number of available features for a professional conference call system.  Your conference calls can be limited to one way communication where only one party can speak or be open so that every individual who dials in can correspond.  The ability to host a video conference call in which one or more parties can visually see what is being presented via a webcam is available from many providers.  Some conference call providers require you to make a reservation for a particular time while others allow you to start a conference call at any time.  Special services are available from some providers such as conference call recording, transcripting, rebroadcasting, and operator assistance.  Be sure to identify the features you require from your system before you move on to looking for the right provider and understand that some features may add signifcantly to the price of your plan.

Conference call service is provided by a large number of companies of various sizes and under a number of different pricing options.  There are also free conference calling servies that you need to be careful with as they actually charge you through reverse billing at a rate often not advertised or fixed.  Some of the available pricing plans include toll, toll free, unlimited plans, and "free conference calls."  The plan you choose is generally dictated by the type of individuals with whom you are conference calling and for the amount of usage you are planning.

A toll conference call plan distributes the cost of the conference call to each of the call's participants.  While this is generally the best approach for a small number of low cost conference calls, it is not appropriate in many cases.  You would not want to use this type of plan with your customers or employees who may be alienated by the fact you are forcing them to pay to communicate with them.  Cases where this may be acceptable are in meeting between equal business partners where one individual doesn't wish to be stuck with the bill or in community discussion without a particular host.

In a toll free plan, the host pays for the entire cost of the call by first signing up with a provider and then distributing a toll free number to the call's participants.  The pricing structure for this type of plan is often a per minute per participant basis where a 20 minute call with 10 participants would be billed for 200 minutes.  The number of minutes billed to the host can quickly add up with a large number of participants, especially because a larger group of participants often results in additional questions and therefore a longer call.  The conference call rate charged to the host typically ranges between 3 to 10 cents a minute.  Therefore, the above call with 10 participants lasting 20 minutes would cost the host $10 if the conference call rate was 5 cents a minute.  Make it 25 participants and lasting 60 minutes and you've got a bill of $75.  Some conference call providers offer plans that allow you to buy blocks of minutes for a reduced price for a period of time such as a month.  This type of agreement could help you create a low cost conference call plan if you know in advance how much you will need.

Companies that use conference calling extensively may want to consider an unlimited plan.  These plans are typically subscription based where the company will pay a monthly fee according to the maximum number of participants they need to be able to handle.  Some plans allow companies to bump up to the next level if their needs should exceed their current subscription while others will force the company to pay a fee for each additional participant.  Unlimited Plans often start as low as $10 a month and can exceed $1,000 month for large numbers of participants.

 There are a number of companies that advertise free or cheap conference calls often on the internet.  These companies actually operate in a similar manner to toll conference call systems except that they are not the party that bills the participants -- which is why they advertise themselves as free or charge an incredibly low rate to the host.  These companies draw their income through traffic pumping agreements that resulted from the Telecommunications Act of 1996.  These types of services often route the call through a rural phone network in order to incur additional fees that are then charged to the local carrier who in turn passes this on the to call participant.  The charges for these 'cheap conference calls' can exceed $0.50 per minute for each participant.  Care must be taken if you wish to consider this option and is often advised that you avoid these conference call providers in general.  Unfortunately, there is a lack of reliable conference call review sites to assist you in this matter but this may change in the future.

The equipment available for conference calls tends to be expensive, especially if you need specialty equipment or need several units. There are a number of specially made phones which have improved speaker systems and higher quality microphones to allow for meetings in a large room. You can also purchase your own bridging equipment should you wish to be able to host your own conference calls. If you wish to have video capabilities you will also need web cams and a computer monitor or projection system. Your conference call equipment can also be integrated into your conference table. The costs of this equipment can be greatly reduced by purchasing used or refurbished.

If your company already has VoIP (Voice over IP) service, you can set up a VoIP conference call provided that the participants also have access to the system you will be using.  You will often need specialty software to perform a VoIP conference call and the pricing for the software and for the service are highly dependent on your VoIP service provider.