Recently in Phone Conference Call Category

Phone conference call services are readily available and can be formatted to suit any budget or communication program.  Here at 24Conferece.com we have a variety of packages and formats that can meet whatever conferencing needs you have.

Take a brief look at these small case studies to see how different services can meet your particular situation:

EXAMPLE:  A small business is looking for a teleconferencing solution to enable 8 colleagues to meet over the phone several times a week for a six month project.  Most will be calling from their cell phones which include free long distance.
SOLUTION:  They chose Flat Rate Teleconferencing because it offered them unlimited usage.  It cost them $39 a month to talk as long as they wanted, whenever they wanted.  The 8 people spoke for several hours a month and they still paid the same flat rate, saving a small fortune.

EXAMPLE:  A sales organization wants to engage experts from different parts of the country to close complicated deals with existing customers and new prospects.  And they want to provide the customers with the convenience of a toll free number to access the conference calls.  They were using a vendor, but costs were adding up and managers wanted to find a way to cut expenses.
SOLUTION:  The 800 Toll Free Supersaver service.  It worked perfectly because they were able to not only provide a toll free number to everyone on the call, but the organization was able to cut their conferencing expenses in half.  Our service provided a "bucket of minutes," similar to how cell phone plans work.  The bundle of toll free minutes is provided at a discounted rate so they were able to accrue a substantial savings while enjoying the benefits of a high quality conference call network.

EXAMPLE:  A non-profit group needed to have ready access to a conference call bridge.  They planned on conferencing a lot one month, but not much the next.  And then, usage was going to pick up again.  They didn't want to commit to a monthly plan and just wanted a "pay as you go" service.
SOLUTION:  The 800 "Pay As You Go" Service which is open 24/7 and need no reservations.  Moreover, they were only charged for what they used, no more or less.  If they didn't use conferencing for weeks or months, they were never billed.

EXAMPLE:  A high end conference was being scheduled by a law firm.  The legal firm wanted to have professional operators initiate the call.  They wanted the operators to call each participant and then put them into the call after introducing them to everyone in the conference.
SOLUTION:  Our Operator Conference Call service called out to each party on their list at the appointed time, so the participants only had to pick up the phone.  Operator assisted calls provide the highest level of convenience and professionalism and perfect for legal firm conference calls and investor relations.

Those are only a few example case studies we see everyday.  Whatever your particular conferencing need is, just give us a call and we'll do our best to make sure you are getting the best conference service at the lowest competitive rates.

Annoying advertisements on conference calls can be intrusive.  That's why we refrain from the practice.  In fact, we think the whole idea of placing advertisements on conference calls is very inappropriate -- especially if you are using a conference call service for prospecting and sales, or customer support.

These ads are used to generate revenue for conference call companies that offer their services for free or next to nothing.  They probably think that it's a small price to pay for free conferencing, and just like television advertising, it goes with the territory.  For casual or personal use, most people can probably get along with it.

However, for professional purposes, it looks bad.  So if you are in charge of conferencing for your business, and your colleagues are using conferencing for sales, marketing, training, or customer support services, you are well advised to find yourself a conference company -- like us -- who can offer you phone conference call services that do not have those annoying ads becoming a nuisance to you and your customers.  Give us a call, and let us show you how a professional conference call service can improve the way you do business.
If you are wondering how free conference calling services work, this blog should hopefully help.  It's a little complicated because of the way the laws are set up, but I'll try to explain how it works step by step.

1)  The Federal government decided in 1996 to allow small rural phone companies to charge other larger phone companies to access their lines.  So, if you had a small phone company in Iowa, for instance, you could charge AT&T or Sprint for any calls coming into your area.  In other words, if you lived in New York City and used AT&T as a long distance carrier, and you called your cousin in rural Iowa, AT&T would have to pay the small phone company in Iowa a fee to put your call through.  The reason the government allowed this to happen was because the smaller phone companies had higher costs putting up phone lines in remote places and much lower volume.  It just cost more to operate a small phone company on a per call basis, than a phone company that had millions of customers.

2)  The fees that AT&T and the larger companies pay the small companies are 10 to 20 times more than the normal fees, sometimes as much as 10 to 20 cents per minute.  Needless to say, this was a sweet deal for the small phone companies.  The more calls they had coming in, the more money they would make.

3)  One way for the smaller phone companies to get more phone traffic, and make more money from the big phone companies, was to attract businesses that had a lot of incoming calls -- namely, conference call providers and phone sex operators.  As an illustration, a small phone company would partner with the conference call services and share some of the fees that AT&T and the larger companies were paying.  For instance, if AT&T was paying a small phone company 10 cents per minute to put a call to the rural area, the small phone company could say, "If you put your conference bridge here, we'll pay you 5 cents per minute for all the traffic you can generate.  You could offer free service to your customers and still make 5 cents per minute.  Millions of minutes will make you a lot of money."  And so, many conference call companies set up shop in the rural areas and offered free service.  Everyone is happy -- the conference customers, the small phone companies, and the conference call companies.  Everyone that is, except AT&T and the large phone companies who have to pay the fees.

4)  Moreover, most cell phone users and residential users have free long distance bundled with their local service, and the larger phone companies are losing twice.  First, delivering the calls for free.  And second, paying to have the calls delivered.  The large companies are none too happy about the situation.  In 2007, AT&T estimated this system, called "traffic pumping" or "access stimulation" cost an additional $250 million.

5)  In order to stop this additional expense, some of the large companies have blocked calls going to the rural carriers.  (This is the reason why many users of the free conference services have experienced difficulties getting through to a conference line.)  The government has said that it is illegal to block calls to the rural carriers, but problems still exist.

6)  Google Voice phone service has prevented its customers from dialing the rural phone companies.  AT&T has objected, saying that if AT&T has to deliver the calls and pay the fees, then Google should too.  AT&T uses Google's own argument that carriers should be neutral, and that a provider should not block "fair access."  However, AT&T and Google both agree that the whole idea of "traffic pumping" and paying excessive fees to small phone companies is "patently unlawful."

7)  Recently, the small phone companies lost a big decision made by the Iowa Utility Board.  Qwest, a major long distance carrier, complained to the Iowa Board.  The Board said the small companies would have to "pay back" millions of dollars they made from the traffic pumping schemes.  Spokesmen at Qwest say that it will set a precedent for other pending cases, including those in front of the Federal Communications Commission, which could make a ruling in 2010.

With the Iowa setback, the days of free conference calling services may soon come to an end and the free conference companies will be competing toe-to-toe with paid services like ours.

The reason we have been able to compete is because we have excelled in quality and service -- the big companies aren't blocking our customers from getting into our conference bridges and we have a full time professional customer service center that provides ongoing operator assistance.  Whatever happens, we're trying to stay above the fray and work on giving you the highest level of conferencing available for those of who you need and depend on reliable conferencing.

To learn how you can get reliable conferencing, click here:  http://www.24conference.com/flatrateteleconference.php


There are a great number of conference call providers out there using all sorts of conference call equipment and hardware.  Some of it is good, and some of it is better, and as the old story goes, you get what you pay for.  To be sure, we use the best hardware on the market today and go that extra mile, and expense, to make sure you access the highest quality conference bridge hardware.  Fortunately, outages and breakdowns are rare.

That being said, there are several ways you can help improve the quality of your calls.  Remember, a conference bridge is just going to relay any sound it hears.  The technology is called full digital duplex, meaning that the conference bridge will pick up two or three, or even a hundred, people talking at once.  It doesn't isolate individual speakers or clip people off.  So whatever kind of background noises you hear on the conference call are coming from the participants phones -- fire sirens, dogs barking, kids screaming, etc.

Moderators have the ability to mute everyone on the call, except for those who call in using the host passcode.  That feature can be very useful, especially if you are formatting a call to a lot of people listening to just a few people.  For example, let's say you have a call where 3 people are going to be doing most of the talking.  Well, those 3 people can call into the conference using the Moderator (or Host) passcode.  When you're ready to mute everyone on the call, except the moderators, just press your command on the keypad and you instantly eliminate the background noise or bad connection.

This can be annoying when someone, for example, calls from a cell phone and has a bad connection.  The noises from that bad connection will echo throughout the conference.  So you want to encourage as many participants as possible to call from a solid landline phone, or at least call from a cell phone that is in a good transmitting and reception location.

Also, remember if you are using a speaker phone to call into the conference, that many of the speaker phones are NOT full digital duplex and will cut off speakers if someone else is talking.  That can also cause some problems, in addition to the fact they will pick all the background noise in a room.  Make sure things are quiet.  If you happen to find yourself in a conference call with bad quality, the first thing you should do is to hang up and try to get a better phone connection.  And/or have others do the same thing.  That usually, and easily, solves most of the problems.

Whether you are next door or around the world, we can help you with your phone conferencing requirements.  Our conference services are available in all areas of United States and Canada.  So if you have a large or small business or association, in a town like Rochester, NY, or Cleveland, OH, we can help you.  Just give us a call and try out our free trial for conference call services today.

If you are in any of these areas, just give us a call and we can set you up in no time with our various options, including toll free service.  Call the number at the top of the page.
Here is a brief list of many of the terms used in the conference call business:

800 Conferencing:  A conference service that provides a toll free dial in number for conference participants.

Audio Conference:  A meeting over the phone that accommodates three or more people.

Auto Hang Up:  An optional feature that disconnects everyone from the conference when the last moderator hangs up the phone.

Conferee (also known as Participant, Guest):
  A person who accepts an invitation to join and participate in a phone conference.

Dial In Number:  The phone number used to access the conference bridge.  Everyone -- moderators and participants -- dial the same dial-in number.

Entry Tone (also known as beeps):  Small sound alerts that indicate when someone has entered or left a conference.  This is an optional feature.

Flat Rate Conferencing:  A conferencing service plan that provides unlimited conference service at anytime for a fixed monthly rate.

Lecture Mode:  Enables the moderator to mute all the participants, except for those who called into the conference using the moderator's PIN code.

Moderator (also known as Host, Leader):  The person(s) who leads the conference.  Moderators usually invites participants, set the agenda and can control the technical aspects of the conference through telephone keypad commands.  For example, muting the conference participants so only the moderators can be heard.

Music on Hold:  An optional feature that plays music for those who dial into the conference before the moderator arrives.  This feature is used to prevent the actual start of the conference until the moderator gets there.

Muting:  The simple process of silencing participants to enable moderators to speak without interruption or distracting background noise.

Name Announce:  An optional conferencing feature that records a participants name and then replays it to everyone when entering the conference.

Passcode (also known as PIN code):  A confidential 7 digit number that allows access to a conference bridge.  Usually, conference moderators have one passcode, and conference participants have another passcode.  The moderator passcode code enables control of the conference with such features as muting.

Pay As You Go Conferencing:  A program that bills conferencing usage on a per minute basis, without contracts and minimum requirements.  You only pay for what you use.

Reservationless Conferencing (also known as on-demand or unattended conferencing):  A conferencing service that is available at anytime, without the need for reservations or operator assistance.

Start Video:  The brand name of 24Conference.com's video and web conferencing service that enables those in the conference and connected to the Internet to see each other via desktop webcams, along with displaying PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets and white boards for all to see.

Start Visuals:  The brand name of 24Conference.com's web conferencing service that enables those in the conference and connected to the Internet to display PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets and white boards for all to see.  It also allows you to "share" your desktop, so your participants can actually see whatever you put on your computer monitor.

Teleconference (same as phone conference, audio conference):  A meeting over the phone with three or more people.

Web Conference:  A conference that not only includes conferencing, but also a visual interface via the web.  Participants can both hear and see an online presentation.

Webinar:  A combination of the words "web" and "seminar."  Webinars are also called web conferences which enable a number of participants to speak on the phone (or over VOIP) and see a simultaneous, real-time, presentation online.


We wanted to give you links to our latest conferencing articles at EzineArticles.com -- a wide ranging forum where topic experts can share their ideas and insights.  We've focused our contributions on a couple of areas, including conferencing and phone broadcasting.  Here are the topics and direct links to the articles we've submitted and published:

Business Conference Call

Pay As You Go Phone Conference Calling Service

Deposition Conference Call Service

Operator Conference Call - Professional Organized Phone Conferencing

Audio Conference

Phone Conference Call Services

800 Conference Call

Small Business Conference Calling

New York City (NYC) Conference Call Services

Law Firm Conference

Business Teleconference Service

Flat Rate Teleconference Services Offer Real Value
Here is a list of the phone conference call toll free numbers and rates we offer in various countries.  International toll free conferencing is a tremendous convenience and perfect for business applications.  So if you have clients or associates in these countries that could find a toll free conference number useful, you'll want to give us a call to get your conference service set up today.

United Kingdom toll free conference call rate:  14 cents per minute/per person USD
Germany toll free conference call rate:  14 cents per minute/per person USD
France toll free conference call rate:  15 cents per minute/per person USD
Spain toll free conference call rate:  16 cents per minute/per person USD
Mexico toll free conference call rate:  28 cents per minute/per person USD
Sweden toll free conference call rate:  14 cents per minute/per person USD
Austria toll free conference call rate:  14 cents per minute/per person USD
Belgium toll free conference call rate:  14 cents per minute/per person USD
Holland (The Netherlands) toll free conference call rate:  15 cents per minute/per person USD
Ireland toll free conference call rate:  14 cents per minute/per person USD
Switzerland toll free conference call rate:  17 cents per minute/per person USD

Remember, we also have local numbers located in many counties that ring to the conference bridges in the United States.  That service only costs 7 cents per minute/per person.  That's a great way to cut your expenses in half!  It might not be toll free, but you will be able to dial a local number in that country and still end up at the same conference bridge.

Let us help you set up an international conference bridge today.   You can call us from outside the United States at 716-754-8414 or from within the U.S. and Canada at 800-254-2424.  Or you can just click on the Contact Us button in the upper right and send us an email.

We've been busy writing articles about phone conferencing at a very popular website called EzineArticles.com.  The website has a gazillion topics with articles submitted by experts in practically every field of endeavor.  Within a matter of days, our articles warranted the distinction of being named a "platinum" writer and have garnered hundreds of views.

Here is a list of the latest articles we've contributed.  Maybe you'll see a topic you want to learn more about:

Business Conference Call

Deposition Conference Call Service

Robocall - Do's and Don'ts for Political Candidates

Operator Conference Call - Professionally Organized Phone Conferencing

Phone Conference Call Services - How to Choose

Audio Conference

Flat Rate Teleconference Service Offers Real Value

Telecommuting - 3 Essential Tools

800 Conference Call

Law Firm Conference

Small Business Conference Calling

Pay As You Go Conference Calling Service


Small business conference call services are our bread and butter.  We're a small business that is geared to cater to companies with 250 or fewer employees.  Since we're a small business as well, we believe we understand the needs of our clients very well.  Do we serve large accounts too?  Oh yes.  But the vast majority of our customers are small to medium size organizations that like using our many services such as Flat Rate teleconferencing, pay as you go and operator assisted plans.

If you are small business and looking for new conferencing services, or want to get a quote or bid to make sure you aren't overpaying for the service you presently have, give us a call and let us know how we can help.  We can offer you a number of options and that will fit your particular needs, all within you budget.  In fact, why don't you get a free trial account and find out first hand how things work -- with no obligation or cost.  Can't beat that!