Types of Audio Conference Calling

As your business grows, you may find yourself in need of ways to keep in contact with other divisions of your company. You may also need to contact suppliers or clients in other states or countries and include more than one department in meetings with them. Instead of spending money on travel, or coordinating video conferencing apps, audio conference calling services are available for businesses and business professionals.

Audio Conference Calls

Telephone conferencing or audio conference calls are virtual meetings between two or more participants over the telephone. The participants usually dial into a conference call to either listen to the meeting or they may be able to participate by asking questions or presenting information pertinent to the meeting. There are two types of audio conference calling services: long distance or toll-free dial-in.

Long Distance Dial-In

A long distance dial-in service allows participants to call a long distance telephone number to dial into a conference call. While the host of the conference is not charged, the participants are charged for a long distance call by their long distance carrier. While this is a way to provide cheap conference calls for businesses, there are some drawbacks to this type of service.

To increase their revenue, some cheap conference calling services play ads during the calls. This can be annoying because it can disrupt the meeting you’re having and it may seem unprofessional if the call is with clients. In addition, there are often long introductions when participants dial into the virtual meeting, which can take a few minutes of the participants’ time and the instructions may be confusing for some first-time participants.

Toll-Free Dial-In

Businesses with locations across the United States or around the world can have cheap conference calling when they use a toll-free dial-in service. The participants in audio conference calls will dial the toll-free number and be connected to the conference call, usually by inputting a PIN number. Everyone calling in will be charged a flat rate for the call, which is usually very low, but they will not be charged for a long distance call since they dialed a toll-free number.

There are no ad interruptions or long introductions when using this type of cheap conference calling. In addition, the host isn’t charged for services they don’t use, but for only those they do. It gives your business a more professional image when using this type of audio conference calling because there are no unnecessary disruptions during their virtual meetings and participants are connected to the conference call immediately.

Cheap conference calls allow you to conduct business with clients, partners or overseas divisions of your business without the time delays and costs of traveling to meetings. Most companies offering cheap conference calling services, such as My Global Conference, will allow hundreds of participants to use their toll free dial-up service to dial into a virtual meeting. So, you can have several divisions of your company or clients, dial-in into meetings at a low cost to you and your participants.