Conference call for 300 people?

April 23, 2010 1:52 PM

What conference call service can I purchase for a one time phone call with 300 participants?

If possible, I would like them to all hold in music until the host joins. They would dial in a certain number. I am drawing a blank, only finding links for 50-100 people. Thank you!

PS: This is for a one time, one hour phone call- not a subscription.

posted by timpanogos to technology (13 answers total)

Follow up: These callers need to all call in on landlines.
posted by timpanogos at 1:53 PM on April 23, 2010

It might help to let people know where in the world you and the callers will be?
posted by oxit at 1:54 PM on April 23, 2010

Sorry, EST and MST time zones in the US.
posted by timpanogos at 1:57 PM on April 23, 2010

I work for AT&T, but not in the teleconferencing department. They can handle calls up to 4000 people. Sorry I have no idea of rates or anything. Www.ATT.com/virtualmeetings is the place to check for those.
posted by soelo at 2:04 PM on April 23, 2010

My company uses http://www.freeconferencecall.com for one off and recurring conference calls.
posted by mewithoutyou at 2:06 PM on April 23, 2010

I can't imagine a situation where 300 people need to actively participate in a conference call, though - surely there isn't even time in an hour! Can you not have the call with the likely active participants and record it for the other people to listen to afterwards?
posted by Brockles at 2:06 PM on April 23, 2010

My workplace uses Accuconference and it looks like they should handle what you need.
posted by reptile at 2:08 PM on April 23, 2010

mostly out of curiosity, what exactly would you be using this for? there may be an easier alternative solution...
posted by notnathan at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2010

freeconferencecall.com is ok, but you get what you pay for. If it's important for this call to go well, I suggest going with a service that has an operator on the line who can jump in and address any technical issues
posted by meta_eli at 3:44 PM on April 23, 2010

Brockles: what do you mean by "surely there isn't even time in an hour!" ?
posted by segatakai at 7:40 PM on April 23, 2010

I mean, not enough time for 300 people to actively participate, rather than just listen. I was suggesting that the actual number of people that can usefully participate in a conference call is actually lower than 300, and that was worth considering if a solution couldn't be found.
posted by Brockles at 8:03 PM on April 23, 2010

Brockles: But you don't necessarily know which small subset of those 300 will want to actively participate.
posted by dmd at 5:00 AM on April 25, 2010

That was why I said it was worth considering with the likely active participants if a solution couldn't be found. It was an alternative, not a solution.
posted by Brockles at 8:12 AM on April 25, 2010