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Over the course of the last twenty years or so, the conference call space has significantly changed. It was formerly the case that only larger sized businesses had access to multi participant phone conferencing. Such systems were typically quite expensive and often featured live operator assistance on every call.
Monopolist telecom companies priced conference calling services at costly rates (e.g. over twenty cents per user minute) and most businesses were willing to pay these charges to ensure reliable and quality service. More recently the teleconferencing market has seen a high degree of competitive forces. A variety of factors have been responsible including telecom deregulation, significant improvements in internet technology and demand for better services.
The competitive landscape now consists of dozens of providers in addition to the incumbent telcos. Organizations and individuals that want to use teleconferencing now have a far wider menu of choices. Within that range of providers are free conference calling offerings such as Rondee that meld free conference calling with web based scheduling and other productivity tools. These companies do not charge users for the reason that they use a toll number as opposed to a traditional toll-free number. Thus, 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 essentially free because many telephone plans now offer flat rate “all you can dial” and typically cellular plans no longer carry additional charges for long distance phone calls. On account of these factors, teleconferencing has become available to a far broader market of users as the following use-cases demonstrate.
Student groups have found significant benefit in utilizing conference call systems to generate collaboration across universities, cities and states. Most campuses have dozens, if not hundreds of active student groups. In some cases, these clubs are chapters of regional, state-wide or even national organizations. Due to the budgetary realities of student life, it would be impractical for the individual members of these disparate groups to meet in person. Teleconferencing thus becomes the most effective way for members to stay in touch and discuss topics of shared interest.
Political campaigns now use teleconferencing conference calling on a frequent basis. In certain cases it is used to allow candidates to connect with contributors or volunteers. Alternatively, it enables remote consultants to work with locally situated staff. For state-wide or national campaigns, conference calling becomes even more important as a method of ensuring frequent communication because it is truly not possible to ensure a physical presence. In the most recent primary season, Republican candidates in Iowa 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 brutal pace of the campaign season.
Early stage companies have long felt the same requirement for conference calling as well established corporations. However, it was not until the development of discount conferencing and free conferencing alternatives such as Rondee, that early stage companies could avail themselves of the benefits. Young companies might use these systems to coordinate work with remote developers in Eastern Europe or Eastern Asia, discuss design themes with graphic artist designers (in the case of Web 2.0 start-ups), or simply discuss work-plans with disparate members of the core team.
Families have traditionally not used conference calling as a means of staying in touch. That is now beginning to change. The widespread availability of discount or free conferencing services is helping families to schedule time when parents can talk to multiple children or even grandchildren. The same is true, in reverse. Younger family members are introducing parents and grandparents to the benefits of teleconferencing as a way of deepening relationships and staying connected to loved ones.
In summary, teleconferencing is no longer the exclusive domain of business. Other potential users have long felt the need but it has only been with the launch of new business models that the availability of these services has become more ubiquitous.
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