News Feeds

Communication News

How Much Does a Conference Bridge Cost?

 

How much does a conference bridge cost?  It's a very common question and there are two easy answers, depending on your situation:
 
1)  You don't need to buy a conference bridge to have a conference call.  The cheapest and most effective way to conduct a conference call is to use a conference service on a pay-as-you-go basis that gives you access to our conference bridges which are already installed and operating.  It's like buying a time-share rather than the condo.  We have several plans to choose from (see the links at the top of the page for the various services.)
 
2)  If you are looking to buy and install your own conference bridge hardware and software, you need to be a very heavy user -- at least $2000 a month in conference call expenses -- to make it worthwhile.  We buy, sell and rent dedicated conference call bridges and would be happy to provide you a quote.  However, please understand that 99% of all businesses and non-profits outsource their conferencing to services like 24Conference.com because it is much more cost effective and there is no need to install additoinal phone lines, sign long term maintenance contracts, hire staff  to monitor and organize usage, not to mention the upfront capital costs associated with purchasing conference hardware which can run into the tens, or hundreds, of thousands of dollars.
 
Unless advancing technology changes the situation, our advice is to keep things simple and outsource to our service bureau.  Time and time again, we've seen occasions when companies get diverted from their core mission and start spending time and money trying to internalize technology because they "want to keep it inhouse."  All of a sudden, they get themselves into the conference call business, only to find out later it wasn't worth the investment.  (A perfect example of this is video conferencing:  Companies have spent hundreds of thousands trying to put in fancy hardware, only to find out that the trend is "desktop video" using a $25 webcam and an "in the cloud" service costing only pennies a minute.)
 
If you are corporate enterprise and you've made the decision to install a new inhouse conference bridge, we stand ready to assist you with your purchase or rental.  However, if you are medium to small operation, we highly recommend that you continue to do what you do best, while letting us take care of your conference needs.  You'll find that outsourcing not only saves you money, but the convenience and the time you save, especially with reservationless conference calling, will make your dealings and collaboration projects much more pleasant and easy.
 
We look forward to helping you set up the custom conferencing plan that best meets your needs and budget.