In the last two decades, the conference call landscape has significantly changed. It used to be the case that only larger businesses had access to multi participant phone teleconferencing. These systems were usually rather expensive and often had live operator assistance on every call.
Monopolist telecommunications companies priced conference calling services at costly rates (e.g twenty five cents plus per minute per user) and most companies were willing to pay such charges to ensure reliable and quality services. Now in recent years the market has seen a high degree of competitive forces. A variety of factors have been responsible including telecommunications deregulation, significant improvements in web technology and demand for improved services.
The competitive environment now includes seemingly countless companies in addition to the incumbent telcos. Organizations and individuals that desire to use teleconferencing now have a far wider selection of alternatives. Within that range of providers are
free conference calling services such as Rondee that meld free conference calling with web based scheduling and other productivity tools. These companies do not charge users because they use a toll dial-in as opposed to a traditional toll-free dial-in. Therefore, such free
conference call services are not free in the same sense that air is free. They do require minutes of phone usage.
Notwithstanding that, such services are increasingly being perceived by users as basically free because many phone plans now offer flat rate unlimited dialing; and typically cell phone plans no longer have added charges for long distance phone calls. As a result of these trends, teleconferencing has become available to a far broader market of users as the following use-cases illustrate.
Labor unions have effectively used traditional conferencing systems and, increasingly, free conference calling services to enable disparately located members to discuss strategies and plan meetings. Unions have traditionally been cost conscious because their budgets are limited to the extent of member contributions. Thus, as is typical of non-profits, unions frequently search for methods of making every dollar stretch further. In times of labor strikes or other situations of urgency, conferencing becomes a viable method of allowing the national leadership to communicate with chapter leaders.
Political campaigns now use teleconferencing conference calling on a regular basis. In certain cases it is used to allow candidates to connect with contributors or volunteers. In other cases, it enables remote consultants to work with locally situated campaign staff. For state-wide or national campaigns, conference calling becomes even more important as a method of ensuring frequent communication because it is truly impossible to ensure a physical presence. In the most recent primary season, Republican candidates in New Hampshire received extensive media publicity on extremely well publicized conference calls undertaken to reassure big donors and influential political analysts that their campaigns could survive the harsh pace of the campaign season.
Families have traditionally not used conference calling as a means of keeping in touch. That is now beginning to change. The widespread availability of discount or free conferencing services is now enabling families to arrange time when parents can talk to multiple children or even grandchildren. The same is true, in reverse. Younger family members are starting to introduce parents and grandparents to the benefits of conferencing as a way of deepening relationships and staying up to date with loved ones.
In sum, teleconferencing is no longer the exclusive domain of large business users. Other potential users have long felt the need but it has only been with the creation of new business models that the availability of these offerings has become more ubiquitous.
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Linda Rogers lectures on and comments frequently about communication subjects. She consults to a number of organizations that use communication technologies involving conference calling. Her clients include
free conference calling companies such as Rondee.
