Category Archives: Conference Call Services

Open source web conferencing is in its early stages and some startups are still in alpha or beta but show great promise. Let’s look at a couple of these.

The first new open source Web conferencing product we’re looking at was just introduced by a reviewer online at the end of July, so it’s not even on the market yet though should be soon, possibly looking for a beta site.

Web conferencing pricing from conference call service vendors is varied. Some charge for a limited number of seats and a fee based on minutes per month. These generally have an overage charge for additional minutes at a per minute price. Others simply charge by the minute. In general, Web conference pricing is tending toward monthly flat rates, or packages these Web conference services with others such as team work space and instant messaging.

Those Web conference vendors that offer flat rate monthly pricing usually bundle this as a package with a specified number of participants or just designate use by a specified host for unlimited service for the month.

Sometimes it’s hard to determine the cheapest conference calling rates. It takes some careful comparison as conference calling rates vary from flat fees, to charges by minute per user, and some offer the cheapest rates of all – free. Reading the fine print is important, and there is much variation in features, some of which firms may or may not need.

If your firm uses or anticipates using conference call services extensively or on any regular basis at all, a flat rate may be a better buy than the per minute per user fee that many vendors offer. Knowing what your break even numbers are may be a little time consuming, especially given the variations in rates and pricing among the various conference call services, but this is about the only way to determine if the flat rate is the way to go.

Conference call ratings, while fairly standard as either per minute per user, or on a flat per seat fee, must be thoroughly studied when a firm starts comparison shopping among the various Web conferencing vendors. The billing process should be thoroughly understood before you even start comparing and researching your various conference call ratings options.

Looking around the Internet for conference call vendors, for example, would yield a number of firms that purport to have free conference calling. When you first look at the information it does seem to be a free service. The fine print tells a different tale of these vendor’s conference call ratings, however. Generally, free conferencing call ratings means free to the attendees but with a hefty fee to the firm organizing and presenting the Web conference.