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Conference Calling
Conference Calling... Not Just For Business
Anymore
by Michael Fedeli
We need to schedule a Conference Call! Not to long ago
that statement was only uttered in the CEO's office or
in the board room. But now, thanks to the phenomenal drop
in long distance calling costs, conference calling is
affordable to almost any group or organization that wants
to get together to discuss the important issues.
While conference calling is now relatively inexpensive
there is still a per minute per participant cost. Conference
calling should only be used when the cost of the call
would be cheaper than gathering all of the participants
together on one room. For example if your entire group
resides in the same city, why make a conference call when
you could just schedule a meeting. If your group is spread
Statewide, or has members in other States or Countries
then conference calling is the way to go.
Just think of the expense, time and hassles that can be
avoided. Travel time, airfare, hotel bills, rental car
fees and gas costs. Now, sometimes groups just have to
meet face to face for important events and meetings. In
these instances conference calls can be used as Gap Filler
meetings to pass along important information and updates.
Lets talk about some of the new applications that conference
calling is now being used for. Family reunions are one
of the most popular, especially for families with relatives
spread all over the USA or the World. If you have an actual
reunion there are always those who can not attend for
one reason or another. So why not schedule a conference
call. You can put the main phone, where all of the physical
attendees are, on speaker phone and have all of the remote
folks call in at a designated time. This would also be
great over the holidays. Conference calling is now being
used for all kinds of reunions such as College classes,
military units or any circles of friends who are now separated
geographically.
Most conference call services available today offer two
plans, flat rate and per minute. With flat rate the subscriber
can schedule as many conferences as he or she wants and
pay one monthly fee. With per minute plans all participants
call a toll free number and the subscriber pays the per
minute cost for each individual caller. There is no cost
to the participants for either of these plans, only the
actual subscriber receives a bill.
For more formal or business conference calling most providers
also offer operator assisted and operator attended conferences
for an extra fee.
There are several conference call providers that offer
online sign-up and no monthly fee so you only pay when
you actually use the service. Have fun and schedule a
conference call today.
About the Author
Mike is an Independent Telecom Consultant. His website,
PhoneCallWorld.com features several telecom and conference
calling solutions.
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