Conference Call Services

August 30, 2005 10:33 AM

I've been given the task of locating an inexpensive, easy to use and reliable Conference Call Service.

I guess I'm unclear on the concept since our business telephones allow conferencing. So, what I need to know is -
What's a good or average rate to pay for such a service?
What benefits should I look for?

If anyone has specific "tried and true" recommendations, that would be appreciated, also.

posted by SoftSummerBreeze to technology (7 comments total)

It's definitely a lot easier to just email out a call-in number and passcode irather than tracking people down to conference them in on your phone.

I use Premiere Conferencing. I believe we pay about .10/user/minute. This was less than half of what we paid AT&T. What's nice is that you do not need to make a reservation. Each user you sign up as a moderator gets their own passcode to use as they wish.
posted by missmerrymack at 10:53 AM on August 30, 2005

Correction - .08/user/minute.
posted by missmerrymack at 11:11 AM on August 30, 2005

We've used http://www.freeconference.com/ at work and been satisfied with it. They have several different options based on your requirements.
posted by Miss Bitchy Pants at 11:25 AM on August 30, 2005

I second Miss Bitchy Pants' suggestion.
posted by Merdryn at 11:45 AM on August 30, 2005

My problem with the free services are that it leaves the invitees with a phone bill for the call. From what I've found, participants call in to a toll number as opposed to a toll-free number for the services you pay so much per user per minute.
True?
posted by SoftSummerBreeze at 1:46 PM on August 30, 2005

That's true SoftSummerBreeze, but most conferencing systems, such as the FreeConference one have for-fee options that will give you a toll-free number if you want to pay for everyone dialing in.

Alternatively, some systems will also allow you to dial-out to invite other users. Bigfoot's conferencing tools allow for both toll-free dial-in as well as dial-out. You can even add on a web-conferencing using a white-board and chatting.. However, it's slightly more expensive than the two options presented above.
posted by tuxster at 2:22 PM on August 30, 2005

We have been using CogniConference at work for about 4 years. We don't use it too often, but it has been working great. The service is all billed to us, all we have to do is call in and use our modarator code to "start" the conference, and then we provide a toll-free call-in number and a user code for the rest of the participants.

We use the overseas service (toll free for our callers, calling in to a local number) pretty much every time, and we have yet to have a problem. It's probably not the cheapest out there, but for us it has been very realiable. You only pay when you use it too, which is nice.
posted by gemmy at 5:10 PM on August 30, 2005