Toll Free Conference Calls

Conference calls are a convenient method of communicating with a lot of people all at once. Technologies today allow many different types of conference calling.

For a small business, simple 3-way calling may suffice. This feature is available through your telephone company and whatever long-distance rates you have on the phone that originates the call will apply.

When several people located in many different places need to access conference calls, a conference call company can provide this service.

A basic conference call service offers audio conference calls (also called teleconferencing) over the telephone. Usually, you have the option of toll-free calls or flat-rate calls.

“Toll-free” is sort of a misnomer because “toll-free” does not mean it’s entirely a free call because the person or business that hires the conference call company pays for the service.

Toll-free conference calls are free for the participants. With toll-free packages, participants use a toll-free number to dial into the call via the conference call company.

The charges for the calls are usually by the minute for the length of the call. In many cases, the more minutes used, the less money per minute it costs. For instance, one package may offer 1,000 toll-free minutes for $70 or 7 cents a minute. If you go over 1,000 minutes, each additional minute would cost 7 cents. Another package may offer 10,000 minutes for $400 or 4 cents a minute and 4 cents for each minute over 10,000 minutes. You can see the cost goes down with the larger packages.

A flat-rate conference call package requires the participants to pay their own long-distance charges. They dial a regular phone number to access the call via the conference call company. The company who hires the conference call company also pays a flat fee to set up the service.

The conference call companies always offer features that augment their basic service. For example, you can have the conference call company record your conference calls and then provide a playback. The playbacks can even be on-demand so people can hear them at any time 24/7.

As you might imagine, conducting a live conference call with dozens of people on the line at once could get a bit out of hand with everyone talking at once and noise in the background as well. Technology comes to the rescue with mute buttons that allow the moderator and/or operator to control what is broadcast on the call.

The operators at the teleconferencing companies can assist you in many ways. In addition to connecting participants as they call in to access your conference, operators can even call participants and then connect them to your call. Operators can attend the entire conference call, providing opening announcements, introductions for host and speakers, moderating question and answer sessions and making closing comments at the end of the call.

Audio conference calls are not the only options available to you. Web conferencing is another type of conference call that utilizes access through participants’ computers. Participants are able to view PowerPoint and whiteboard presentations and to share documents. Communication among participants can be audio or via chat formats. Upgrades of web conferencing services include application and desktop sharing, remote control and video conferencing.

As you can see, there are many ways that businesses today can communicate effectively via conference calling. There are lots of conference-calling companies to choose from and the competition among them drives good bargains for business owners who will take the time to do a little research to find the best bargains.

VoIP Calling With Free Call Planet

Free Call Planet allows VoIP calling to 39 countries for free if the call originates from within the USA.

The way to use this internet phone service is by calling one of the so called gateway numbers placed throughout the States. If one lives outside toll free zone for that number then there is naturally a landline or cell phone company charge for calling it - unless one has a domestic or mobile phone plan that covers that. Otherwise, if one lives in the same call zone to which the gateway number corresponds then the call to it is automatically free.

For mobile phone users additional fees from their cell phone providers might apply. On unlimited minutes cell phone plans the call should be free although one needs to be careful not to press the 'send' or 'call' button or retrieve the number from the cell phone’s directory - after calling the gateway number - otherwise one can be billed the high rates by the given mobile phone provider.

On December 6th, this year - there is also to be released a list of additional 40 or so countries to which unlimited VoIP calling can be done for a flat fee of $10 per month, paid monthly.

Some other details include being able to call only from a pre-specified by user IP or phone number as well as $0.25 per minute charge to most countries not listed in the free call plan and $0.75 per minute to special access countries - when subscribed to their Free Call Planet Plus plan.

According to the company the free call plan has no termination point at this time although it is a part of their promotion program and can be withdrawn at any time.

A unique and nice feature of the Free Call Planet service is that it allows originating the calls through regular PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) service. In other words you can make the VoIP calls by using regular phone - no computer or IP phone is needed.

Make Free Internet Phone Calls With VoIP And Save A Ton Of Money On Phone Bills

Have you heard all the buzz about VoIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an emerging technology which allows you to make telephone calls over the Internet – many times for free. It is already starting to replace existing telephone networks, with many people and businesses choosing to cancel their traditional phone line and use VoIP instead. Why? Price. Consumer are finding that they can save a lot of money using VoIP technologies.

Originally developed to provide voice communication between computer users in different locations, in recent years, VoIP has been further developed into a telephone network in its own right. People using VoIP can call any telephone anywhere in the world and can receive calls on telephone sets connected to the Internet.

Currently, there are quite a few VoIP services available for consumers to choose from. Some of these still rely on PC-to-PC connections but many VoIP providers offer other services such as PC-to-phone and phone-to-phone connection.

In order to use VoIP, both parties need a broadband connection. This is a high-speed Internet connection usually provided by a cable or DSL modem- broadband modems are usually used to connect computers to the Internet.

The simplest form of VoIP is a computer-to-computer voice connection. This is also the type of connection which allows users to make free phone calls over the Internet.

All that is required to make your first free call over the Internet is a computer, a headset consisting of earphones and microphone, and VoIP software. The VoIP software can be downloaded from the service provider’s site. The best thing is that most software packages are free and allow you to connect to any computer running the same software.

There is no charge for this type of connection and calls can be made to anywhere in the world free of charge. If you choose you could also use an Internet telephone that plugs into the sound card or USB port on your computer. However, this is an additional expense which is really not necessary.

Until recently, the major disadvantage with computer-to-computer calls was that both parties had to have the same kind of software installed in order to make a connection; but things are changing now and emerging technology is beginning to allow users to make calls to users utilizing different VoIP software. Almost every software package, however, has the ability to connect with landline or cellular phones.

How It Works

Although each VoIP software package is different, most VoIP software function the same way. Usually, you can call another person on the network by typing in their user name or number. If that person is online they will see a popup box alerting them that you want to talk. The other party can see who is calling and can choose to either accept or reject the call.

Before the popup appears, however, there has already been some communication between the two computers. The VoIP software has information about the speed of your Internet connection and the type of code that can be used to compress and decompress audio data. When a call request is made, both computers negotiate which code is going to be used to make allowances for the connection speed.

Other types of VoIP Services are available which allow you to make PC-to-Phone connections, and also calls that do not involve the use of your computer at all. Although these premium services vary in price, in most cases by using VoIP technology you will be saving a significant amount of money on your phone bills each month.