Cheap and easy automated voice conferencing

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Regular residents of the World Wide Web have become lazy and cheap. We set up inexpensive wireless LANs in home and office so we can surf wherever we happen to be, and demand all sorts of auxiliary service free of charge.

For example, I recently became upset with the folks at efax.com, who canceled the free fax number I had been using (in the 253 area code — wherever that is) for the last couple of years, because I was receiving an unreasonable number of fax pages each month. So it was either pay $10 a month for a local phone number, or try again for a new free one.

I no longer print my fax number on my business card — if someone really needs my fax number they can and will ask. And as the company claims not to re-use fax numbers, all that someone familiar with the 253 number will get is no answer, which will generate a phone call or e-mail request for my fax number. So for a while at least, I’ll pay my $10 a month — about $8 a month less than a dedicated fax line — to receive faxes, and continue to send faxes on my own fax machine.

Another Web freebie to bite the dust. But there are still lots of free Web services available. Telephone conferencing is one of them. As a confirmed lazy and cheap Web user, I want to be connected by voice wherever I happen to be and, of course, I want it as inexpensively as possible, and maybe even free of charge.

Voice conferencing

The last time I looked at telephone conferencing, it cost 50 cents per minute per person and was run by an operator who had an advance list of participants and made sure everything ran smoothly.

Telecommunications has changed and the conferencing “bridge” — the equipment that joins many calls together so that everyone can hear each other — has, like everything else electronic, become smaller, computer controlled, more reliable and less expensive. Which means, of course, more opportunities for use by lawyers and law firms.

Voice conferencing makes sense whenever several users need to get together in the same room, but it is deemed inconvenient, too expensive or, in this post- 9/11 age, not safe enough to travel. It isn’t unusual today for corporations to hold conference calls for financial analysts, for judges to conduct motion hearings by conference call or for corporate boards to add far-flung members to meeting rosters using conference calls. And it is certainly practical to give conference call options to continuing legal education seminars, bar association committee meetings and even multi-office management or department meetings.

As long-distance pricing has dropped considerably, toll-free options for telephone conferencing has gotten a lot less expensive. At $10 or $15 per hour — and this is for the expensive automated services — telephone conferencing is something to think about to avoid a cab ride across town. If you are using telephone conferencing a lot, you can get an unlimited service where each caller to pays his or her own telephone toll charges — either at an inexpensive rate, or literally for nothing.

Of course, some people don’t like telephone conferencing. The lines are too noisy, people are difficult to understand, everyone tries to talk at once and it’s impossible to assess other participants without being face-to-face. But if each participant keeps the phone on “mute” until he wishes to speak, announces his name before speaking, and speaks only when given permission from the moderator, even a contentious meeting can result in a good outcome.

How it works

Telephone voice conferencing depends on what is called a “bridge,” a device that connects a group of telephone lines together so that everyone can hear everyone else.

In the old days, the conference moderator — the person setting up a voice conference — called a conference provider, and specified the time and duration of the conference and a list of participants. Either the conference provider or the moderator would then notify each participant of the (usually toll-free) number to call, a conference ID of some sort, and instructions to call a few minutes before the set time. As the participant calls in, an operator answers the phone, instructs the participant how to use the conference and asks the participant to hold the line until the conference begins.

While these types of conferences are still available, a new breed of automated conferencing without an operator now brings the cost down to 15 to 20 cents per minute (including toll-free incoming lines) to next to nothing, or even nothing if each participant is responsible for his or her own long-distance charges. (Given that long-distance charges more than 5 cents per minute are considered expensive these days, and that many cell phone users get “free” long distance, this transfer of long-distance charges to the users makes a lot of sense.) And, of course, a lot of the conference organization can be done through the World Wide Web, making things even more convenient and less expensive.

A few good vendors

The least expensive service I found was hosted through www.freeconference.com. As the domain name implies, the organization runs teleconferences but doesn’t charge for them.

The conferences can have no more than 32 participants. The company seems to offer a full-feature set, including muting, chimes when someone joins or leaves the call, e-mail notices to participants on prescheduled conferences, moderator controlled conference lock/unlock, and subconferences while the main conference is going on. It also offers “no reservation” conferencing which can be set up in a few minutes, unless the system is too busy. The only missing feature I noted was lack of the ability to record the conference for later playback for those who simply couldn’t make it.

The Web site claims that the company will be making money on advertising and call volume. I don’t understand the announced business plan, and don’t expect that these guys will be around for very long — but who knows? Besides, I am not suggesting that you invest in the company, but offer it as a possibility in case you are interested in very low-cost telephone conferencing.

Another site, www.unlimitedconferencing.com, has a wide variety of traditional and automated telephone, Web and video conferencing services. I was first attracted to the notion of unlimited conferencing for conferences with 10 participants or fewer for $50 per month. (Conferences with 20 participants cost $100 per month, and $195 for unlimited 50-person conferences.)

All conferences are run through a New York City phone number, but the company will add “toll free” for all or selected participants for 4.9 cents per minute per person. Add $10 per month to record conferences for the 10 or fewer participant conferences.

If you don’t want to sign a contract and want to set up a conference of 200 or fewer persons on the fly, the company will provide toll-free calling for 9.9 cents per minute per person.

Copper River, at www.copperriverinc.com is selling full-featured automated toll-free conferencing for 12 cents per minute, and includes the possibility of playback over the phone or over the Web. This company will be offering unlimited toll conferencing at prices similar to unlimitedconferencing.com.

There are lots of other vendors as well. I suggest you Google “telephone conferencing” to compile a large list with a few key clicks. And the next time you schedule a routine meeti
ng with several parties who may require an hour or two of travel, ask “How about trying a conference call?”

Summary

Automated voice conference calls are both easy and inexpensive to set up and use. It isn’t quite “being there,” but there are lots of situations in which it may be very close.

Barry D. Bayer practices law and writes about computers from his law office in Homewood, IL. To contact him, write to Law Office Technology Review, P.O. Box 2577, Homewood, IL 60430; call him at (708) 957-3322; or send an e-mail to [email protected]. Specific origin and pricing information about the products discussed in these columns are available at www.lawtechreview.com/details.html.