Featured

Virtual phone in Spain forwards calls to a phone in the U.S.

At first, Maria was a bit hesitant about using a virtual phone number. She wasn’t sure if it would work as well as a traditional phone line. But after a few weeks of using it, she realized that it was one of the best decisions she had ever made.

Virtual Phone Spain USA

Virtual Phone is important for Maria.

Maria had always loved the idea of traveling and seeing the world. So when she got a job offer to work in Spain, she jumped at the chance. The only problem was, she didn’t want to lose touch with her family and friends back home in the U.S.

That’s when Maria decided to look into getting a virtual phone. After some research, she found aitelephone, a provider that offered a virtual phone number in Spain that she could forward to her mobile phone in the U.S.

At first, Maria was a bit hesitant about using a virtual phone number. She wasn’t sure if it would work as well as a traditional phone line. But after a few weeks of using it, she realized that it was one of the best decisions she had ever made.

With her virtual phone number, Maria was able to stay connected to her loved ones back home without having to worry about expensive international calling fees. She could forward her calls to her mobile phone in the U.S. and answer them as if she was still in the country. This made it easy for her to keep up with her family and friends, even when she was thousands of miles away.

But it wasn’t just her personal life that benefited from the virtual phone number. As a freelance writer, Maria also used the number for her business calls. She could give out a professional number to clients without having to use her personal number. This not only helped her maintain privacy but also gave her business a more professional image.

One day, Maria was working on a big project for a client in the U.S. She had been working on it for weeks and was getting close to the deadline. Suddenly, her phone rang. It was her client, calling to discuss some last-minute changes to the project.

Maria was in Spain at the time and didn’t have her U.S. phone with her. But with her virtual phone number, it didn’t matter. She answered the call on her Spanish mobile phone and was able to make the changes to the project right then and there. Her client was impressed with how quickly she was able to respond and praised her for her professionalism.

From that day on, Maria realized just how important her virtual phone number was. It wasn’t just a way to stay connected to her family and friends back home, but it was also a valuable tool for her business.

As she continued to use her virtual phone, Maria found that it was more reliable than she ever could have imagined. She never missed a call and was always able to answer no matter where she was in the world. It was a truly invaluable tool that helped her maintain her personal and professional life, no matter where her travels took her.

In the end, Maria was grateful for her virtual phone. It had given her the freedom to travel and work from anywhere in the world without sacrificing her connections back home. If you’re ever in a similar situation, she highly recommends looking into a virtual phone number. It just might be the best decision you ever make.

View Country Coverage of Virtual Phone Numbers

Spain Consulate

Featured

Operator Assisted Conference Call

If you send us details about your planned event, we will quickly provide a quote and answer any questions you may have.
Get a Free Quote for Your Next Call

Operator assisted conference call enables organizations to stay connected with national and international partners, vendors, employees, bidders, trainees, and other people in expertly run group calls.

With our operator actively monitoring the conference call (or group of them for larger events), the host of the call can focus on the task at hand without the distractions of greeting attendees, verifying attendance, fielding questions, or muting and unmuting lines.

How an Operator Assisted Conference Call Works

Operator assisted conference calls rely on the same underlying technology as our regular conference calls, but have a much more personal touch.

Live operators work with you before, during, and after the call, providing a concierge-like experience.

With larger groups, registration becomes paramount.

We set this up and manage it for you as well as send out reminders so no one forgets to call in. If they do forget, our operators will dial out to them and manually join them into the call.

We provide all attendees with local or toll free access numbers, even if they are located in other countries.

For the few countries without local or toll-free access, our operators will dial those attendees directly.

Beforehand, an operator will meet with you to plan the conference call, go over its requirements, and assign a sufficient number of operators to participate in the call.

As the call begins, operators will greet attendees, gather any required information, confirm they’re on the authorized list, and troubleshoot connections.

If desired, an operator can present both the introduction and conclusion of the call. During the call, operators mute and unmute lines, field questions, dial-out to any scheduled speakers, and more.

You can also have an operator moderate the Q&A session. After the call, an operator can compile and send reports, recordings, and transcripts based on the services you’ve ordered.

Get a free quote for your next event call

Benefits of an Operator Assisted Conference Call

Holding a large conference call is more complicated than holding a small one, with the potential for more disruptions and less organization.

Operator assisted conference calls solves this problem, allowing you to focus on your message delivery while we take care of the call’s logistics.

Some of the benefits of operator-assisted conference calls include:

  • Improved conference call security — We make sure only authorized attendees can join the call through the use of passcodes and by screening them as they join.
  • Audio monitoring — Background noise, dogs barking, interruptions, and inappropriate outburst are unpleasant interruptions that can quickly derail your audio conference. Lecture only mode and live audio monitoring reduce the risk of audio disruptions leading to a better conferencing experience for everyone.
  • Improved attendance — Timely reminders and our operators’ ability to dial participants directly improve conference call attendance.
  • Improved engagement — Since operators can conduct polls throughout the conference call, the call becomes more engaging and you can gather attendee sentiment.

Operator Assisted Conferencing Uses

Companies use an operator assisted conference call for all kinds of purposes including but not limited to:

  • Workforce planning — Quickly hiring or laying off tens of thousands of employees is no easy undertaking. Bringing executives, HR managers, legal teams, and other key participants from around the globe into a group audio call helps to ensure that everyone receives the same information.
  • Annual meetings — Whether presenting to shareholders or collaborating with internal personnel, holding annual meetings via operator-assisted conference calls is a cost-effective way to share information with a large, geographically diverse group.

Film production meetings — Multiple production units from across the country or around the world often collaborate via operator-assisted conference calls.

Utilize a visual element that you desire. Share slides, screen share, and choose to collaborate fully with any of the top tier video platforms available, such as:

zoomWebExVidyo

Get a free quote for your next event call

Group – Inform – Status – Action

Featured

Zoom versus Old School Audio Conferencing

Zoom video call versus Old School Audio Conferencing

By now, most working professionals, college students, parents, and even retirees are familiar with Zoom, Google Hangouts, and other popular Internet-based video conferencing apps.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting stay-at-home orders and physical distancing requirements caused a massive shift from in-person to virtual interactions.

Thankfully, technology has made it possible to work from home and stay connected with colleagues, customers, friends, and family members despite the restrictions.

Unfortunately, what looks good on paper doesn’t always play out in reality.

Zoom Video Requires Sufficient Bandwidth

For starters, video conferencing requires reliable, high-speed broadband connections, and not everybody has them.

Moreover, an estimated 47 percent increase in broadband usage in the first quarter of 2020 has strained the system for existing users.

With everyone home, we’re all watching Netflix, playing online video games, working remotely, and attending school online — we’re all power users!

Cable ISP providers serving a neighborhood or apartment building, for example, only provide so much bandwidth for that community. As more users tap into it, there’s less to go around for others.

This wasn’t as big a deal when people weren’t online all the time using bandwidth-heavy applications like video streaming and video conferencing, but it is now.

Even worse, many communities lack broadband access or have slow connections. The FCC’s Eighth Broadband Progress Report reveals that:

“…approximately 19 million Americans—6 percent of the population—still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds.

In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population —14.5 million people—lack access to this service. In tribal areas, nearly one-third of the population lacks access.

Even in areas where broadband is available, approximately 100 million Americans still do not subscribe.”

A Lack of Bandwidth Leads to a Poor Zoom Video Conferencing Experience

So let’s say you have an important Zoom meeting coming up and a DSL Internet connection that has worked fine in the past for the occasional video conference. However, your family’s home using up bandwidth.

When you join your meeting, it’s a sluggish disaster filled with a jittery video that cuts in and out, delays, frozen images, and audio glitches. You can barely make sense of what others are saying and they can barely see or hear you.

What if you live in a rural area where broadband connections and DSL aren’t available at all?

You may have to drive to a public access point such as city hall, a library, or your favorite coffee house and hope the connection is sufficient for your purposes.

Consider that you may need to maintain a safe physical distance from others doing the same thing.

We Can’t Ignore the Digital Divide

The digital divide affects people of color, tribal communities, low-income citizens, and rural residents.

Whether it’s about affordability or lack of infrastructure, the inability to participate in distance learning, remote work, video conferences, and other virtual activities puts these individuals at a huge disadvantage.

Imagine one of your key team members working from home in a rural area with limited access. She can’t fully attend your weekly video conferences, though she tries.

Glitches and garbled audio make it nearly impossible. As a result, her ideas are not being heard and she’s not learning the critical information she needs to do her job effectively. You’re both missing out.

Zoom Video Conferencing Security is Still Evolving

With the rush to Zoom and other popular video conferencing apps, video conferencing security — and its flaws — have become a major concern.

Tom’s Guide details a long list of security issues associated with Zoom video conferencing.

Here are just a few:

  • Zoom installers laced with malware — Make sure you download Zoom from the official site. Otherwise, you could expose your computer to malware such as a cryptocoin miner that takes over your computer to mine cryptocurrency. With a huge user base thanks to the pandemic, Zoom has become an attractive target for hackers and troublemakers.
  • Zoom call bombing — Public Zoom video conferences are vulnerable to a practice known as “Zoom bombing” where pranksters join the meeting and post inappropriate pictures or make obnoxious noises. To avoid this, do not publicize your meeting IDs and require a password to join.
  • Malware in shared files — A now-patched flaw allowed hackers to share malicious animated GIFs and ZIP files in Zoom’s chat feature. As with any unsolicited file, you should use care before clicking, especially in a public Zoom video conference.
  • Privacy concerns — Zoom’s privacy policy originally reserved the right to use your personal data and share it with third parties. After criticism, the privacy policy was rewritten but there are still some lingering questions about Zoom’s relationship with third-party advertisers.
  • Private Zoom chats may not be so private — If you chat privately with another attendee, the host may be able to see it in the end-of-meeting transcript sent after the video conference.
  • Meeting recordings can be found online — The predictable URL structure of Zoom call recordings make them easy to find, and many were not previously password protected. Zoom has since added a Captcha challenge to the recordings, but the URL structure remains the same.

While some issues have been addressed, video conferencing security continues to evolve. With Zoom call being a large target, you’ll want to use care when using the app and follow the best practices of securing your video conferences with a password and non-public meeting link.

Should You Go Old School With Audio Conferencing?

Audio conferencing has been a business mainstay for decades. It’s convenient, reliable, and widely accessible.

With the pandemic, however, many organizations have become enamored with video conferencing. After all, we crave face-to-face interactions with our peers, family members, and friends and we have the technology to make it happen.

In addition to the problems outlined above, there’s also a bit of video conferencing fatigue going on. What normally would have been an audio conference pre-COVID-19 has now become a video conference.

This means dressing up, de-cluttering the background, and remaining on camera for the duration of the meeting.

Holding an audio conference solves these issues beautifully. You can still exchange information with your team in a group audio call, but it’s not necessary to see each other.

Those in rural communities or without Internet access can fully participate simply by dialing a phone number on their mobile or landline telephones. Your meetings no longer leave others out due to the digital divide.

VoIP & PSTN

That said, audio conferencing comes in two flavors — VoIP and “old school” PSTN.

With VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) audio conferencing, the same broadband access and quality issues can occur because the data is carried over the Internet and impacted by bandwidth or lack thereof.

Thus, audio quality may be subpar with delays, echoes, muffled or garbled sounds, and other issues. With old school PSTN audio conferencing, the audio quality is far superior because the data is carried over traditional PSTN telephone lines.

Remember those old “you can hear a pin drop” commercials? That’s the type of audio connections associated with PSTN audio conferencing.

So, should you host a Zoom video conference or go old school with audio conferencing? Both have their place.

You may have some occasions where face-to-face interactions and screen- and file-sharing make video conferencing the best choice.

However, there are likely far more occasions where a simple audio conference will lead to a more productive meeting and a better user experience without potentially leaving any of your team behind.

Sources:

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/operators/due-to-covid-19-broadband-usage-spikes-47-q1-nearly-surpassing-all-2020-s-projections#:

https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/eighth-broadband-progress-report#:

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/zoom-security-privacy-woes

Featured

Global Audio Conference Calls in 30 Minutes or Less

The more complex the issue, and the more people who need to weigh in, the more time you will likely need.

Global Audio Conference Calls can be productive in 30 minutes or less. We’ve all wasted plenty of time attending meetings and conference calls that rambled on for much longer than they needed to be. Not only are longer-than-necessary conference calls boring and unproductive, but they can also be costly. Costs can include your per-minute rates per attendee as well as lost productivity costs and potential dings to your relationship or credibility if the meeting is overly long and poorly managed. If you prefer to get the message across and then get moving, these tips can help you host a global audio conference in 30 minutes or less.

  • Decide on the topics — Understanding the purpose of the global conference call will drive what you talk about. For example, if your call is about new product packaging and compliance with various countries’ labeling requirements, it probably doesn’t make sense to spend time talking about your company’s new sexual harassment prevention policy.

 

  • Duration — Mull over the issue at hand and pick a suitable duration for your global audio conference call such as 15, 20, or 30 minutes. The more complex the issue, and the more people who need to weigh in, the more time you will likely need. Attending a 15-to-30-minute audio conference is doable for most people. Keeping your meetings short forces you to prioritize topics and manage the time you have together on the call.

 

  • Build your agenda based on the desired duration — Once you have a time frame in mind, organize your agenda items to fit within it. There are two ways you could approach this:
    • Start with short, fast updates. In a matter of minutes, you could have the bulk of your agenda items taken care of, leaving the rest of the time to focus on your most pressing issue. This approach is helpful if you frequently find that you run out of time before you get to the minor updates.
    • Start with the most important agenda items and end with the least important ones. This approach is helpful when you want to ensure that the most important topic gets addressed thoroughly.

 

  • Set realistic time limits for each agenda item — You may have a good idea about how much time you need to present your own topics, but you might not know how much time your other presenters need, so ask them. Another idea is to estimate their time and then ask if it’s sufficient. For example, you could say, “I’ve allotted you 7 minutes to discuss the issue during our conference call. Is that enough time? Too much time?”
  • By communicating the time limits with your co-presenters in advance, they’ll be better able to prepare their messages to fit within the allotted time. Include a few minutes at the end to field questions and wrap up the call.
  • Global audio conference actively managed — This means starting the meeting promptly and adhering to the time limits you’ve set. Let your attendees know how long the call will last and that you want to respect their time. They’ll appreciate a tightly run meeting that ends on time. 
  • Note any action steps and reiterate them at the end of the call — A productive global conference call is one where everyone now understands the issue and knows what’s expected of them moving forward.
  • Holding shorter, more frequent global audio conference calls is a great way to improve productivity and communication with a global team. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at keeping the meeting running smoothly and on time. You’ll get a better sense of how much time your agenda items require, leading to potentially shorter audio conferences in the future.
  • These days many of us are using Zoom, Teams, Video Chat, etc. However, to get everyone on a call quickly without concerns about time of day, personal appearance, or available Wifi, nothing has come along to beat jumping on a quick international audio conference call using a mobile phone or landline.

Learn more about Audio Conferencing for International Communications

Featured

Smartphone International Conference Calls

Smartphone International Conference Calls

Smartphone International Conference Calls and international participants on a smartphone has its challenges — for you and for participants. Even if you have just three attendees in total and use your phone’s three-way calling feature, dialing an international number requires entering your country’s exit code and the other partys’ country codes. You’ll need to determine those in advance. Meanwhile, your phone’s calling plan may not support international calling, throwing yet another wrench into what should be a simple process. You could have your international attendees call you, but that just subjects them to these same issues. Plus, how will you connect everyone into a single call if they’re calling you?

International Conferencing Plans for Low-Cost Global Conference Calls

The best way to make low-cost international conference calls on a smartphone is to use our international conference calling plan. We bill only for the minutes you use — and at competitive per minute rates for more than 150 countries around the world. In fact, you’d probably pay much more using your phone’s three-way calling feature and dialing your international participants directly. Our plan is offered without a contract and with no minimum usage requirements so you can use it, or not use it, as you please.

Smartphone International Conference Calls and the Free Connect App

Once you sign up for one of our pay-as-you-go plans, the process of hosting a call from your smartphone is simple. We recommend downloading our free Connect app, which will be sent to you upon activating your account. You may share this app with your attendees as well. The app lets you start an on-demand conference call with just a few taps. Your participants can tap to join your global conference calls. There’s no need for anyone to enter access numbers or passcodes, nor will anyone be required to dial a lengthy and potentially costly international long distance number.

The Connect app is ideal for both the moderator of the call and international attendees who will be joining the call using a mobile phone. It’s not the only way to join, though. In fact, our service supports all types of phones including traditional landlines, VoIP phones, Skype, or computer access. We have access numbers for more than 150 countries. These numbers are specific to each country, enabling participants to dial a number that’s either local or toll free to them, yet joining your international conference call. For example, a participant in France might dial a local number for Paris or a toll free French number while someone located in Japan would be offered access numbers local to Japan.

This reduces the burden of international dialing and eliminates concerns about how much the call will cost. At the same time, it makes dialing from a mobile or landline phone as easy as dialing a local phone number. If a user prefers to use the Connect app, that’s even easier. It’s also ultimately cheaper for you as calls made using the Connect app are billed using our low dial-out rates.

Get Started

The days of trying to coordinate an international conference call via your phone’s three-way calling feature are over. We offer a much better way for dozens of participants to join from around the world. Using a global PSTN network, the call quality is exceptional. Our live, US-based operators are ready to assist 24/7 should you need help. Best of all, whether you use the Connect app or another connection method, the process is easy.

Learn more or sign up for an account today

Featured

Virtual Meeting Service

Designate someone to take notes and record the meeting. You’ll want to start your virtual meetings with some housekeeping, starting with designating one person to take notes using the shared notes feature inside Virtual Workplace.

Virtual Meeting Service

5 Quick and Easy Ways to Improve the Productivity of Your Virtual Meeting

Virtual Meeting using the Virtual Workplace tool makes it easier than ever to collaborate with your team. It’s no longer necessary to find or travel to a convenient meeting place.

In fact, your team no longer needs to reside in the same geographic area in order to meet face-to-face thanks to video and web conferencing.

As wonderful as video conferencing is, there’s always room for improvement. If your virtual meetings are not as productive as you’d like, these virtual meeting housekeeping tips are for you.

1. Designate someone to take notes and record the meeting. You’ll want to start your virtual meetings with some housekeeping, starting with designating one person to take notes using the shared notes feature in Virtual Workplace.

This will free everyone else from the task while also putting the information in a shared environment for instant access if needed.

Let everyone know that the recording is also being recorded and will be distributed to them afterward. This step will help your team members to be more present during the virtual meeting.

2. Make use of the chatbox. The chatbox isn’t just for idle chitchat. It serves an important organizational purpose. Encourage attendees to enter their questions and comments into the chat box as they arise.

While you might not address them then and there, at the end of the meeting you can go through the list. This is a great way to get input from the introverts in the group who might otherwise hesitate to speak up.

3. Do a quick “round-robin” at the beginning or end of the video conference. Just as you’d go around the conference room table seeking input from attendees, do the same in your virtual meetings.

It’s smart to have each person answer the same routine questions such as what they’re working on, what they need help with, and what are the near-term projects they will be working on.

4. Use PowerPoint slides to highlight agenda items. Having and sharing an agenda is crucial for productive meetings, so make it a prominent part of your video-based meetings by converting it into a PowerPoint.

Create a slide for each agenda item using a large font and engaging visuals. If an agenda item is assigned to a particular person, add that person’s name or photo to the slide. This could help prevent others from commandeering the topic.

Keep your slides simple and uncluttered. As the presenter of the virtual meeting, you can share your screen. However, while the agenda is important, don’t hide behind it.

Alternate between being on camera and then switching to the agenda or use a split-screen format where both your face and the PowerPoint are visible. Keeping the agenda items prominent will help in keeping the meeting focused and productive.

5. Use an on-screen timer. If you have sufficient PowerPoint skills, consider building a timer into your PowerPoint slides or setting each agenda item to automatically progress to the next slide after a predetermined duration. Here’s an easy way to add a progress bar to a PowerPoint slide:

Including an automatic timing element in your virtual meetings will help everyone to stay on track. For example, as the progress bar reaches its end, the speaker will know when it’s time to wrap up the topic.

Your own workspace branding

Another way is to make sure you’re using a user-friendly video conferencing tool such as Virtual Workplace.

If you are meeting with potential or existing clients, consider the benefits of a ‘branded’ meeting. Branding with your own company logo and domain can provide your enterprise with a great first impression.

You can enable the consistency, prominence, and credibility that your brand offers. Enable your website branding to carry over to your own virtual workspace.

Try it free now

Featured

Virtual Global Phone Number Use While On Tour

How to Use a Virtual Global Phone Number When On an International Tour

Virtual Global Phone Number

Why you may need a Global Phone Number and a Mobile Phone

Mobile Phones can be used by a rock star, musicians, stage actors, dancers, performers, crew members, business professionals, military service members, or a world traveler, going on an international tour or any sort means extensive time away from home — and your loved ones. Mobile phones are wonderful tools that can help you stay in touch, but they don’t always work as expected from one country to the next. Plus, international roaming charges are likely to put a damper on your international phone conversations. Fortunately, a global phone number is a cost-effective solution that enables you to be reached by phone no matter where in the world you might be.

What is a Virtual Global Phone Number?

By being “virtual,” this type of phone number is not tied to any given physical phone line. Rather, you can change where the phone rings at any time, to any phone number. Since it is also a global phone number, this means that you can forward your calls to any phone in the world and take advantage of our low international call forwarding rates.

For example, if your family and friends are in the United States, you could get a toll free virtual global phone number for the United States and then set your “ring to” number to ring to your hotel phone in Paris, France. To your callers, it’s a typical toll free phone call. Behind the scenes, that call is forwarded over our modern fiber optic telecommunications network to your hotel room in France — bypassing the typical (and expensive) international long distance carriers that your calls would normally travel through.

The Flexibility of Using a Virtual Global Phone Number When On an International Tour

When on tour, you’re rarely in one place long. After a night in France, you could find yourself in Germany, Ireland, UK, or Switzerland before heading off to another country — or continent — a few days later. When you have a virtual global phone number, your callers don’t need to try to figure out where you are and how to reach you because they’ll always dial the same exact phone number every time. Instead, you’ll change the ring to number as you travel around the world.

Thus, an example ring-to strategy might look like this:

  • Paris, France: Ring-to number set as hotel room phone number
  • Berlin, Germany: Ring-to number set as a disposal cell phone purchased in Germany
  • Dublin, Ireland: Ring-to number set as a phone line at a temporary office space you’ve rented for the day
  • Nova Scotia, Canada: Ring-to number set as your personal mobile phone number
  • Iceland: Ring-to number set as your hotel phone number 

Using  a Virtual Global Phone Number to Make Cheap Calls Home

The ability to receive phone calls from home while on tour is reassuring; however, there will likely be times when you’d like to initiate the calls. Our contract-free global phone numbers work in the opposite way, too. For example, if you’re staying in Paris, France for a few weeks, it might make sense to order a global call forwarding number that’s local to Paris. That way, you could make a local call, but set the ring to number to the phone number of whomever you are calling — no matter where in the world they may be. Since our virtual global phone numbers are offered without a contract, they’re perfect for short-term use such as when a job, assignment, or tour requires overseas travel.

Learn more about Virtual Phone Number for International Use

Featured

Create Your Own 24-Hour Recorded Message Hotline

Our virtual numbers are a flexible choice for all kinds of recorded information scenarios.

Create a Recorded Message Hotline
Recorded Message Hotline

Recorded Message Hotline Service can be important to businesses of all sizes  — and getting it set up is easier and more affordable than you may realize.

Hotlines can include either a standard message available around the clock or custom messages that you change periodically. Here’s what you need to know about setting up your first 24-hour recorded message hotline.

Create a Hotline

Recorded Message Hotline Service Uses

Example

Recorded message hotlines are a great way to share information with the general public, consumers, or business prospects. Some common uses include:

  • Product and service information — Some products and services are best explained with audio, and some people simply prefer to hear about a product or service over reading about it. Audio allows your personality to come across and can convey enthusiasm, credibility, and professionalism. Adding a toll-free number to your brochures and sales materials can be an effective option to further educate your prospects and customers.
  • Safety information — For example, if you operate a pest control company, you could create an informational hotline with a recorded message hotline about fumigation. When fumigating a home or business, you could then post warning signs with your toll-free number with important safety information.
  • Crisis management — Whether it’s a natural disaster, a strike, civil unrest, business rumors, or some other disruption affecting your business, setting up a 24-hour hotline with a recorded message is an effective way to keep people informed. For example, if a hurricane has disrupted your business, you could set up a hotline for your employees to call each day to find out if they should work from home or report to the office.
  • Market information/updates — Realtors and mortgage brokers often use recorded messages to relay the latest interest rates or market news. Seasonal businesses such as ski resorts use recorded message hotlines to share the latest snow conditions.

How to Get Your Own Toll Free or Local Hotline Number

To create a recorded message hotline, start by ordering one of our virtual phone numbers. These phone numbers are available globally, are month-to-month with no contract.

Since you can cancel at any time, you can set up recorded messages for short-term or long-term projects. Toll-free, local and global numbers are available.

Once signed up, you’ll need to record your Recorded Message Hotline message and set up the virtual number’s extensions. Several options are available. For example, you could prompt callers to enter different extensions to hear specific information such as 1 for the latest interest rates or real estate listings or 2 for directions to your office.

You could also set up your number so that it answers in greeting only mode. With a convenient, easy-to-use online portal, you can update your recordings easily from your phone or computer.

Our virtual numbers are a flexible choice for all kinds of recorded information scenarios. Whether you have a short-term project to communicate or would like to keep your hotline message going for years to come, our virtual phone numbers are easy to use, affordable, and loaded with excellent features.

Create a Recorded Message Hotline | Try Free for 14 Days

Examples – Radio Station Diamond Head, HI – Aloha
Severe Weather Warning

Hotline Usage Examples

pharmaceutical company A pharmaceutical company has been informed that a drug is no longer available and needs to inform its nationwide sales force immediately of the details. They send a text to the rep to call the product hotline number for the alert details.

Realtors and mortgage brokers Realtors and mortgage brokers often use recorded messages to relay the latest interest rates or market news.

Seasonal businesses Seasonal businesses such as ski resorts use recorded message hotlines to share the latest snow conditions.

informational hotline A pest control company, could create an informational hotline with a recorded message about fumigation. When fumigating a home or business, you could then post warning signs with your toll-free number with important safety information.

Business Disruption If a hurricane has disrupted your business or the community, you could set up a hotline for your employees and residents to call each day to find out the status or if they should work from home or report to the office.

Try For Free

Featured

Attorney Conference Call with Client Matter Billing Code Management

If you use AT&T, which uses the same bridging technology that we use, you’re paying a premium rate.

Attorney Conference Call Service for US/Canada Law Firms

Attorney Conference Call using ClientMatterConference
ClientMatterConference Attorney Conference Call

 

ClientMatterConference enables a comprehensive attorney conference call service for the US/Canada legal profession.

Here’s how it compares to the leading legal industry teleconference providers.

Major Attorney Conference Call Service Providers

The main competitors in the law firm centric conferencing arena are:

  • Soundpath Legal by PGi Legal
  • Infinite Conferencing Legal
  • AT&T Legal Conference
  • Intercall legal conference

Not all are created equal and have different costs and capabilities. ClientMatterConference performs well against the competition for what is most important to attorneys, court reporters, legal assistants and legal professionals across Canada and the U.S.

The needs of the Law Firm

Fifty percent of the conferencing companies that cater to the legal industry seem to offer services that essentially are business conferencing services.

For example, AT&T legal conference and Infinite Conferencing legal are standard conferencing plans not specific to the attorney or law firm workflow.

ClientMatterConference is designed to serve attorneys and their support staff. The entire Attorney Conference Call service enables hosting anything from a conference call with the judge or a paralegal conference call to deposition conferencing and hearings, civil motions with built-in security, and pristine audio quality.

Billable hours used to be an issue but with ClientMatterConference each attorney conference call can be assigned with a client and matter billing code for a specific attorney. All call minutes are identified and itemized.  All call data is viewable online through the customer portal and can be sorted by client, matter, attorney, date of call, etc.

Attorney Staff Friendly

Our online portal consists of just one page. Your one-page portal allows you to quickly create ad-hock conference rooms complete with client matter billing codes.

No Hidden Fees or Surprises

It’s a pay-as-you-go service with no activation fees and no recurring fees.  There are no hidden fees, no monthly fees, no minimum usage requirements, and no contracts.

Same Technology

ClientMatterConference uses exactly the same bridging technology as AT&T with fiber-optic networks wherever possible.

Attorney Conference Call Competitive Rates

Soundpath Legal by PGi Legal Rates — Soundpath Legal’s Global Meet Audio plan starts at $19 per month, which includes 300 minutes of VoIP or toll minutes. If you want to provide participants with a toll-free access number, you’ll pay an additional 7 cents per minute per participant. You’ll pay $19 per month whether you use up your 300 minutes or not. If you go over 300 minutes, you’ll pay five cents per minute for toll calls (add another seven cents per minute for toll-free calls) or two cents per minute for VoIP calls — all per minute per participant which is standard for conferencing. Web conferencing is not included but is available as a separate product with its own fees.

Infinite Conferencing Rates — Legal conference calls using toll-free numbers cost just four cents per minute under Infinite Conferencing’s Reservationless Conferencing plan. There are limits, however, such as a maximum number of participants totally just 100. Infinite Conferencing’s Operator Assisted Conferencing Plan will cost you 20 cents per minute per participant. Neither plan includes web conferencing.

Intercall Legal Conference Rates  — Intercall offers a pay-as-you-go plan with toll-free rates of 10 cents per minute per attendee. You’re limited to just 125 participants on this plan, and web conferencing is not included.

AT&T Legal Conference Rates  — If you use AT&T, which uses the same bridging technology that we use, you’ll pay a premium rate. For example, its pay-as-you-go rates for AT&T’s “TeleConference and Web Meeting Service” for reservation less automatic dial-in start at 22 cents per minute per participant for a caller paid dial-in number. This increases to 29 cents per minute per participant for toll-free dial-in numbers. Prices go up from there. 

Client Matter Conference Rates — With ClientMatterConference rates are 3.9 cents per minute for Canadian attendees using Canada toll-free access number. And 2.9 cents per minute for U.S. toll-free access attendees. You can have as many as 400 participants in your conferences. Why pay for a flat rate prepaid plan when you can get our bridge features including integrated client matter ID code management and excellent call quality for less?

Learn more about ClientMatterConference.com here

Specialized Canada Conference Call Service Learn More

Attorney Conference Call Service

Client Billing with 5 File Tree Structure templates

Featured

Expanded International Conference Call

Connect with anyone in any country utilizing a group expanded international conference call.

International Video Conferencing

Can a participant join your conference call from their country?

If you host a diverse location conference call with attendees in remote countries, network access numbers probably are available, but not always.  It is not because we don’t try to provide access, it’s because in some countries the internet is still not available for a variety of reasons. These can be political issues or infrastructure related in that country.

International Video Conference Call Service

The International Video service includes wifi conferencing so no dial-in access numbers are necessary, just an internet connection using any web-enabled device. And HD audio is included.

In addition to convenient web/browser access enabling an attendee to join your call using their PC, MAC, or mobile device from inside their country, the International Video Conferencing service also provides the moderator a host of business quality features.

Expanded international conference call use case

For instance, recently a customer based in New York had a project in progress in Bermuda.  So, the chairperson uses the expanded international conference call plan with web access sends the Bermuda meeting attendees an invite for their weekly call.  The other attendees located in the US, Kenya, and the UK meeting guests access the call the same way, by clicking a link at no cost to them. There are no downloads. And PINs are optional for the attendees. Meaning that if you are meeting with the same group, you have the option of not requiring a PIN code to join your video call.

International Video Conferencing • Chat • White Board • Screen Share
Free Trial, no credit card required

Be careful with the company you choose

Some companies offer host-based pricing models that can be 60% to 70% higher than found here.

The Expanded international conference call plan is an all-inclusive, high-powered, intercontinental business collaboration tool with global cloud access guaranteed using Amazon Web Services Cloud-based Data Servers in 84 countries.

Learn more about the International Conference Call Plan here

How to Conduct Operator Assisted Global Event Conference calls

Featured

Conference Calls Hosting

In addition to the normal method of accessing a conference via a phone, one very convenient free optional feature customers enjoy is to use a Connect App. Essentially this is another option to access a conference call using a web enabled device.

How to Host International Conference CallsTasked with hosting an international conference call? It’s not as easy to host international conference calls as it is to do so domestically for several reasons. First, you have time zone and language differences to contend with. Second, different countries have different dialing conventions and international calling costs. And third,  if you’re trying to do it with your office conference phone, it may not be able to handle a large volume of conference call participants.

Here’s how to host international conference calls with ease:

In addition to the normal method of accessing a conference via phone, one very convenient free optional feature customers enjoy is to use the Connect App.  Essentially this is another option to access a conference call using a web-enabled device.

The Connect App work from smartphones and PC’s or Mac desktops.

Connect tools let users quickly schedule, start/join and manage their audio conferences and Web Meetings.

These tools provide an option to have the bridge call the user instead of having to dial an access number, enter a passcode or chairperson PIN, saving time joining a call and avoiding incorrectly entered numbers for the Toll-Free, access code or PIN.

These Connect tools also provide the same functionality to participants when the meeting is scheduled using the free Calendar Tool.   If you are also using Web Meeting, meetings can easily be started or joined from the same invitation/link.

1. Use a world time zone map or calculator to determine the best time for the majority of your call’s participants. It’s not always possible for all participants to attend your live call during local business hours. However, you may be able to find a time that works well for most attendees.

2. Choose a conference call service provider that specializes in helping businesses host international conference calls. Ideally, the provider you choose will support all of the countries involved as well as offer affordable rates. Keep in mind that some countries have higher international calling costs than others. To contain these costs, consider using the service provider’s “dial out” feature. By dialing participants directly, you will get a much lower per minute rate. Dial out can usually be pre-programmed so that those calls will be placed automatically by the conference calling system.

3. Choose local or toll-free numbers for your participants’ countries. One of the biggest challenges you will encounter when you host international conference calls involves providing access to the conference room. This is because each county has its own unique calling conventions. A toll-free number in the United States, for example, doesn’t work in Italy. The trick is to provide callers with either local or toll-free numbers that work in their respective countries. These numbers will then connect to the global conference call.

4. Record the call. When you host international conference calls, there’s usually an option to record the call. By all means, do so. You never know when you might want to listen to it again or share it with others. For example, you may want to use the recording for training purposes or have the call transcribed and translated. Participants who were unable to attend the call in real time could listen to the call after the fact. Recordings are also helpful for those who speak a different language as a first language. By providing a recording of the call, they can go back and listen to sections that they had a hard time keeping up with originally.

When you host international conference calls, many challenges can be overcome by choosing a global conference call service provider that specializes in overseas teleconferencing.

Learn more about hosting international conference calls here

View details about Conference Calling here

Global communication solutions have become increasingly crucial.

One of the primary benefits of using Aitelephone.com’s video conferencing service is that it allows users to connect face-to-face with others, even when they are physically distant. Of course, there are many possible suppliers of global communication solutions but this is unique.

Use it even in a low bandwidth situation.

For global collaboration use any browser on any device with 4K video and HD audio, even with guests on the other side of the planet.

Use any browser on any device and enjoy 4K video and HD audio. Does not matter if the guests are on the other side of the planet.

This is particularly helpful for businesses and organizations that have employees, partners, or customers in different parts of the world. Through video conferencing, people can collaborate, share information, and conduct meetings as if they were in the same room.

Additionally, video conferencing can also be used for personal purposes such as keeping in touch with friends and family, especially those who live far away.

The video conferencing service offered by Aitelephone.com is easy to use and requires only a stable internet connection. This means that anyone, regardless of their location, can access the service and connect with others.

The platform’s user-friendly interface and features like screen sharing, file transfer, and chat make it an excellent tool for remote work and education.

Another service provided by Aitelephone.com is global call forwarding, which allows users to forward their phone calls to any phone number in the world. This service is particularly beneficial for businesses that have customers or partners in different time zones.

By using global call forwarding, businesses can ensure that their customers’ calls are answered promptly, regardless of their location.

Global call forwarding is also useful for personal purposes, such as when traveling abroad or relocating to a new country. Users can forward their calls to their new phone number, ensuring that they do not miss any important calls.

The global collaboration service is easy to set up and can be done through Aitelephone.com’s online portal.

Both video conferencing and global call forwarding are services that can be used by anyone, regardless of their location. As long as the user has a stable internet connection, they can connect with others through video conferencing or forward their calls to any phone number in the world.

Moreover, Aitelephone.com’s video conferencing and global call-forwarding services have made communication more accessible and convenient, allowing people from different parts of the world to connect and communicate effectively.

These global collaboration services can be used by anyone, regardless of their location, as long as they have a stable internet connection. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, these services will undoubtedly play a vital role in ensuring effective communication and collaboration among people from different parts of the world or in the same city.

Reasons to use hotline announcements

Today, I want to talk to you about the importance of hotline announcements.

Hotlines announcements can save time for both the organization and the caller

These are the phone lines that organizations use to provide recorded information to their customers or members. But, hotline announcements are so much more than that. They are a lifeline for many people. They are a source of information, a source of comfort, and a source of hope.

Hotline announcements are a vital tool in today’s fast-paced world. They allow people to access information at any time, day or night. They are cost-effective, and they can provide the same information to multiple people at the same time. They can be automated and multilingual. They can save time for both the organization and the caller. And, they can be easily accessed by people with disabilities or people who have difficulty accessing traditional forms of communication.

But, hotline announcements are not just about providing information. They are about connection. They connect people to the resources they need. They connect people to the help they need. They connect people to the hope they need.

Hotline announcements are especially important during times of crisis. They are a way for organizations to quickly disseminate critical or emergency information to a large group of people. They are a way for people to know that they are not alone. They are a way for people to know that help is available.

Hotline announcements are a vital tool in today’s world. They are a lifeline for many people. They are a source of information, a source of comfort, and a source of hope. Let’s continue to support and invest in hotline announcements so that they can continue to connect people to the resources, help, and hope they need.

Some reasons to use hotline announcements include

Convenience: Announcement hotlines allow people to access information at any time, rather than having to wait for business hours.

Cost-effective: Announcement hotlines are relatively inexpensive to set up and maintain.

Automation: Announcement hotlines can be automated, meaning that they can provide the same information to multiple people at the same time, without the need for additional staff.

Multilingual: Announcement hotlines can provide information in multiple languages.

Time-saving: Announcement hotlines can save time for both the organization and the caller by providing pre-recorded information.

Accessibility: Announcement hotlines can be easily accessed by people with disabilities or people who have difficulty accessing traditional forms of communication.

Emergency or critical updates: Announcement hotlines can be used to quickly disseminate critical or emergency information to a large group of people.

Here is a list of some US companies that use hotline announcements:

  1. Amazon – Customers can call the Amazon hotline for assistance with their orders, account information, and other customer service needs.
  2. UPS – Customers can call the UPS hotline for package tracking, delivery information, and other shipping-related concerns.
  3. FedEx – Customers can call the FedEx hotline for package tracking, delivery information, and other shipping-related concerns.
  4. United Airlines – Customers can call the United Airlines hotline for flight information, reservations, and other travel-related concerns.
  5. American Airlines – Customers can call the American Airlines hotline for flight information, reservations, and other travel-related concerns.
  6. Delta Airlines – Customers can call the Delta Airlines hotline for flight information, reservations, and other travel-related concerns.
  7. Comcast – Customers can call the Comcast hotline for assistance with their cable and internet service, billing, and other account-related concerns.
  8. AT&T – Customers can call the AT&T hotline for assistance with their wireless service, internet service, and other account-related concerns.
  9. Best Buy – Customers can call the Best Buy hotline for assistance with their purchases, product information, and other customer service needs.
  10. Wal-Mart – Customers can call the Wal-Mart hotline for assistance with their purchases, product information, and other customer service needs.

This is just a sample list, there are many more companies that use hotline announcements across different industries.

Let’s work together to make hotline announcements a shining light in the darkness. Together, we can make a difference. Thank you! Aitelephone

Learn more about hotline announcement creation here

Video conferencing versus old school audio conferencing

Many international collaborators rely on email for corresponding with others due to time zone differences. While email gets the job done, there’s often a large lag time.

Try International Video Conferencing branded with your company logo from any global location.

Specifically designed to accommodate teams that meet online.

It is cloud-based and runs in a standard web browser utilizing each participant’s onboard webcam microphone and speakers. No dial-in access numbers are needed.

There are no downloads to install, attendees simply arrive at a URL to join.

International Video Conferencing • Chat • White Board • Screen Share

It enables international video conferencing, with Chat, White Board, Screen Share from any web-enabled device worldwide.

Is it dependable? We think so. It uses Amazon’s Global Secure Cloud Services Backbone with 84 Data Servers Worldwide.

It’s like Zoom on steroids. Use it globally.

Get instant 14 day free trial

The Advantages and Disadvantages of International Conference Calls

Video conferencing provides business professionals, entrepreneurs, investors, celebrities, journalists, and other individuals with international contacts a cost-effective means of collaborating with their associates in other countries.

Using an international video conferencing service provider allows for feature-rich collaboration and crystal-clear connections. Whether you need to host international conferencing events on a regular basis or periodically, you can receive numerous benefits when you start holding conference calls.

As with most everything, a few downsides exist. However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages of international conference calls.

The Advantages of International Video Conferencing for virtual meetings

Less Time Traveling – More Time Collaborating: While meeting in person is certainly desirable, it’s not always practical. With international conferencing, you can interact with your global contacts in a group environment without having to leave the country. Instead of spending a good portion of your business week in airports, on international flights, and inexpensive hotel rooms, pick up the phone, hold your teleconference, and get to the heart of the matter. Your call can last as long as you need it to last. Even if you spend eight full hours in a teleconference, you’ll still be ahead of the game thanks to the ability to make the call from your office.

Dramatically Lower Collaboration Costs: Obviously, eliminating international travel also eliminates international travel costs, making international conferencing economically appealing. In addition to cutting your own travel expenses, you won’t need to rent meeting room space to accommodate attendees. Everyone simply dials into the international conference call from their own offices, homes, or other locations.

Review and Share Your Teleconference: You can record your international conference call with just a button click. Use the MP3 file to review the conference later or share it with colleagues who were unable to attend the call at its scheduled time. Depending on the nature of the call, you might even want to create a podcast out of it or package it into an informational or coaching product.

Video Conferencing Allows for Real-Time Collaboration

Many international collaborators rely on email for corresponding with others due to time zone differences. While email gets the job done, there’s often a large lag time. Using international conferencing, you can collaborate with others in real time. Unfortunately, this is also one of the cons of international conferencing in that some participants may need to participate in the call outside of their normal business hours.

Teleconferencing Allows for More Personal Interactions: Being able to communicate with others over the phone allows for more personal interactions. Not only can you break the ice and get to know one another over the phone, but you can also hear each other’s voice inflections. Voice calls result in fewer misunderstandings than email.

The Cons of International Conferencing

Clearly, international conferencing is an excellent choice for anyone who regularly communicates with international contacts. However, there are a few disadvantages you should be aware of. Fortunately, these disadvantages of international conferencing can be overcome.

All that’s required is the participant’s email address to send an invite.

View more details about the Global Video Conferencing here

Time Differences Can Make Scheduling a Conference Call Challenging: If you’re in Los Angeles and the people you need to meet with are in London, Australia, Japan, and India, scheduling international conferencing is going to be challenging. Some attendees will need to call into the teleconference at a time that is outside of their normal business hours. However, attendees do not need to remain in their offices late at night in order to participate. They can call from any phone, anywhere they may be.

Dialing Conventions Vary from Country to Country: Your international collaborators are used to dialing phone numbers a certain way. Giving them an international phone number to call can cause confusion, require operator assistance, and potentially deter participation due to cost concerns. You can overcome this disadvantage by using an international conferencing service that issues local access numbers or local toll free numbers. Each participant will be given a phone number local to their country. Opt for toll free access if you do not want your participants to pay to participate in the conference.

Calling Rates are High for Some Countries: As the host of an international toll free conference call, you’re right to be concerned about the per minute calling rates for some countries. You may be used to paying less than a nickel per minute for long distance calls and be shocked at some of the rates for other countries. Check the rates for the countries involved in your teleconference and highlight those that you consider too high. For those, use the moderator dial-out feature instead of having those participants call your toll free number. Moderator dial-out means you will call them (and you’ll pay quite a bit less as a result). You can pre-program moderator dial-out so that you do not need to scramble at the last minute to gather everyone into your teleconference.

Meet with your team, partners and associates using virtual meeting service.

International Video Conferencing Can Get Loud: Imagine a conference call with 20 people, all with co-workers chatting, phones ringing, or dogs barking in the background. That call would indeed get noisy. Fortunately, mute and unmute features are easy to use and teach to the group. If any users fail to mute their lines when not speaking, the moderator can mute those lines individually.

As you can see, the advantages of international conferencing definitely outweigh the disadvantages. Plus, the disadvantages are easy to work around with the right international conferencing plan or a virtual meeting service.

Additionally, you can count on reliability with 84 cloud data servers globally adding redundancy to your important video collaboration no matter where in the world your attendees are located.

Learn more

Lebanon Conference Call for Easy International Collaboration

Host a Lebanon Conference Call by activating an account for toll-free international conference calling service.

Doing so enables using the modern telecommunications network and low per minute international conference call rates to countries around the world.  All of your attendees can join your call no matter where they may be located.

Your callers, whether they’re loved ones or business associates, dial a toll-free number to connect to your conference call.

With lower rates and a superior phone connection, you can enjoy your conversation without requiring others to pay for the call. You can even record it if desired.

Here’s How a Lebanon Conference Call Works

Sign up for an international conference calling service with low per minute rates from Lebanon to the countries of your choice. Use your customer portal to have the conferencing bridge ring your phone to enter your conference room.  Then join your international attendees on a global conference call.

Enjoy a superior Lebanon Conference Call with high-quality audio connections.

Lebanon Telecommunications

Lebanon’s telecommunications network was nearly destroyed during its civil war. However, repairs are nearly complete according to the CIA World Fact Book. Lebanon’s teledensity is right at 100 main and mobile phone lines (combined) per 100 people. As of 2011, 900,000 main lines were in use in Lebanon.

The country is home to over 3.3 million mobile subscribers. Lebanon is connected internationally via coaxial cable to Syria, submarine cable to Egypt, Syria, and Cyprus, and two Intelsat satellite earth stations. If you live, work, or travel frequently in Lebanon, you have several options for making international phone calls from Lebanon such as international calling cards which are extremely popular.

Lebanon Conference Call Features

119 worldwide access numbers

Lebanon dial-out feature

Activation fee = None

Monthly fees = $0.00

No contract term

24 hour customer and operator support

Superb quality international toll free network

Automatic attendance reports

Free MP3 session recordings

Initiate conference calls via Global Toll-Free numbers

Add additional conference call rooms for other users

Monthly PDF itemized invoice

Free mobile app for easy conference call access

You can host or attend international conference calls from the following Lebanon cities: Beirut, Ra’s Bayru-t, Tripoli, Sidon or any other city that can access the Lebanon toll-free number.

Optionally the chairperson or attendee can use the web ‘Connect’ feature to trigger a callback to his/her phone to enter the Lebanon conference call.

As an example, your office in Lebanon can host a conference call with your potential client located in Singapore or Dubai and a designer located in India and a founding partner in Turkey or the U.S. or any other worldwide countries.

Examples of Businesses Headquartered in Lebanon

BML Istisharat Cleartag Koein Cre8mania

Central Bank of Lebanon

BANK AUDI sal – AUDI SARADAR GROUP BLOM

Bank Byblos Bank

Fransabank Credit Libanais

American University of Beirut (AUB)

Universit Saint-Joseph (USJ)

Ecole Suprieure des Affaires (ESA)

Beirut Arab University (BAU)

Chteau Kefraya Chteau Ksara Tabbah Aishti Landmark Group

MEDGULF LIA insurance (Libano Arabe sal)

Credit Libanais d’Assurances et de Rassurances (CLA)

AL MASHREK

Dar Al Handasah Rafik El Khoury and Partners

ERGA (Elie Randa Gebrayel Architects)

Matta Associs Hayek Group

Malia International

Khoury Contracting

Kettaneh Construction

GIFCO Net Logistics (Net Holding Group)

Red Logistics HOLDAL

Transmed Makie Company for Commerce

Distribution Lebanese

Association for Sustainable Energy

Sakr Power Group Liban

Ciel Acemco Assiotex Group

Fax | A Brief History of Sending a Facsimile in Telecommunications

Fax in the History of Telecom

Fax in contemporary times

Fax in the era of email, Pinterest, SnapChat, and Instagram, we’re constantly sharing pictures with people around the world.

Obviously, it wasn’t always this way. Alexander Bain, an amateur clockmaker, is credited as being the first to send images over telegraph wires.

His invention, the electric printing telegraph, was patented in 1843, and gave rise to what would later become known as fax machines.

Using his clockmaking skills and telegraph technology, Bain created a transmitter that used a stylus mounted on a pendulum to scan the images on a flat metal surface. Though he patented his invention, he never demonstrated it.

The first person to demonstrate facsimile technology was Frederick Bakewell at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Bakewell used rotating cylinders to transmit and receive images.

The image to be transmitted was written on tinfoil which was wrapped around the transmitting cylinder. A pendulum-mounted stylus scanned the image’s surface, transmitting the signal to a receiving pendulum and cylinder wrapped with a chemically treated paper.

It took about a dozen years before the first commercial facsimile machine came into being. Giovanni Caselli invented the “pantelegraph” which blended an existing machine that could copy words and images, the pantograph, with the telegraph.

A regulating clock was used to improve the synchronization between the sending and receiving units.

In 1860, Caselli demonstrated his pantelegraph to none-other-than Napoleon. By 1865, the pantelegraph became the first commercial facsimile machine, transmitting images between Paris and Lyon, and later, to Marseilles in 1867.

As with many forms of technology, fax technology evolved over the years with numerous inventors contributing along the way.

For example, Edouard Belin’s 1913 Bélinographe incorporated an electric eye which measured the intensity of light to impress images onto photographic paper, much like modern laser printers and copiers do today.

The Bélinographe transmitted images over phone lines. In the early 1920s, the Bélinographe was modified to transmit images over radio waves.

Companies like Western Union, AT&T, and the Associated Press began using “radio photo” and “wire photo” services soon after.

The early wirephoto machines were large, expensive, and required dedicated telephone lines. More portable units were developed.

In some countries such as Japan and Israel, fax machines remain a crucial business and government communications technology.

In others, they have fallen out of favor due to newer, more effective telecommunications tools such as email and online file-sharing. Meanwhile, many businesses continue to rely on faxing due to regulatory requirements.

While you can go to any office supply or computer store and buy a fax machine, many people rely on yet another iteration of the fax machine, computer-based or online faxing.

Rather than using a dedicated machine to send or receive faxes, virtual faxing involves sending or receiving faxes via a computer or mobile device. Sending a fax in this manner typically involves uploading the document, entering the recipient’s fax number, and clicking the send button.

Receiving faxes involves linking a virtual fax number to an email address whereby any faxes sent to that number will be forwarded to the designated email address as a PDF attachment.

Fax machines have come a long way since a clockmaker first tinkered with the concept in the mid-1800s. They continue to play an important role in communicating across distances.

Global Virtual Numbers with International Fax Capabilities

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Resources

http://theinventors.org/library/inventors/blfax.htm

https://faxauthority.com/fax-history/

https://faxauthority.com/biographies/edouard-belin/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirephoto

https://www.britannica.com/technology/fax#ref1089391https://www.business.com/articles/business-faxing/

Remote Meetings Become Global

Consider taking a workshop approach where team members contribute their ideas or work together on a quick task.

There are plenty of good reasons to hold remote meetings with your team ranging from geographical obstacles, cost concerns, and practicality to adapting to a more mobile, tech-savvy workforce, pandemic isolation, and more.

Consider taking a workshop approach where team members contribute their ideas or work together on a quick task.

Whatever the reason, remote meetings, like their physical counterparts, must be planned and managed to ensure that they are both productive and engaging especially if it’s an international conference call remote meeting.

Engagement is especially important with remote meetings because it’s easy for participants to multi-task, especially if they are not using their webcams in a video conference or have their microphones muted in an audio conference.

In these situations, you can’t see or hear your attendees. All you know is that they joined the web or audio conference. Making your remote meetings more engaging and collaborative is crucial. Here are a few tips to do just that.

  • Encourage the use of webcams — This is a great way to build more personalized relationships amongst a remote team that might never actually meet in person.  By its nature, it will also reduce, if not eliminate, the temptation to work on other tasks during the video conference.
  • Include collaborative activities — While there’s certainly a time for relaying company news and decisions made to the team, try to avoid using remote meetings solely as a broadcast channel. Consider taking a workshop approach where team members contribute their ideas or work together on a quick task. You could also include polls or text-based chats to gather feedback on a given topic.
  • Use web conferencing tools to bring the meeting to life — From screen-sharing and whiteboards to YouTube videos, chats, and collaborative notes, modern web conferencing tools enable the entire team to view the same multimedia information simultaneously on their own screens. Make use of these tools. Remember that you can also pass the presenter controls during a web conference, allowing others to share their screens as needed. Allowing participants to share their works-in-progress or illustrate a complex scenario can improve engagement while providing richer insights to the team.
  • Manage the remote meeting’s clock — Physical and remote meetings alike have long had a bad reputation for being overly long, boring, and a general waste of time. This is a tough perception to overcome, but it can be done by carefully planning the agenda to ensure it’s relevant and productive and then managing time so your meeting doesn’t run long.
  • You’ll need to allocate enough time — to cover each agenda item sufficiently and then actively moderate the meeting. When the time is up for an agenda item, quickly wrap up the topic and move on. Consistently starting and ending your remote meetings on time is crucial in showing respect for your participants’ time and improving their perception of the meeting’s value.

Remote meetings using web conferencing technologies make it easy for virtual and mobile teams to collaborate. Try International Video Conferencing free for 14 days and hold more engaging meetings with your team.

International Conferencing Connect with Experts

It’s no longer necessary to fly (or sail) across oceans or traverse continents in order to speak to an international subject matter expert or gather a team of them together into a conference.

How to Use International Conferencing Connect with Subject Matter Experts from Around the World

International Conferencing Connect Use Case | The world has become much smaller thanks to advances in telecommunications. As a result, teams on assignments have much easier access to the brightest minds on the planet.

It’s no longer necessary to fly (or sail) across oceans or traverse continents in order to speak to an international subject matter expert or gather a team of them together for a video conference.

Global conferencing tools make it possible to gather in a group audio call at a moment’s notice.

Best of all, you don’t need expensive equipment or a long-term commitment to a pricey conference calling plan. You do not even need a computer, just your phone.

Here’s what you need to know about using global conference calling to connect with subject matter experts.

Global Video Audio Conferencing Equipment — All you and your subject matter experts need is a web-enabled connection with any device.

Our international conference calling service uses Amazon Web Services Cloud Data Servers currently with 84 Global Data centers to deliver crystal clear HD Video and audio to all participants no matter where in the world they are located.

This is traditional, tried-and-true technology and not VoIP which often causes glitches, dropouts, echoes, and subpar audio quality.  Any phone, including landlines, mobile phones, and Skype, will work with our plans.

Bring an expert on the call

For example, if the subject matter expert is located in Paris, France, she can dial a Paris phone number in order to join your conference call. If another expert is joining you from Dubai, he can dial a toll-free phone number for the United Arab Emirates.

For example, if you need an archaeologist’s to share his expert opinion about a discovery made on a construction site, but first need to discuss other aspects of the project with your team, you might want to begin the conference with your team and then call the archaeologist mid-way through the video conference call.

Respecting experts time

This respects the expert’s time by not requiring him to sit through conversations that are not relevant.

Recording Global Audio Conferences — It’s a good practice to inform participants that the call is being recorded.

Depending on the nature of the call, your subject matter expert may have some conditions on whether the call can be recorded or how you can and cannot use the recording.

If there are no objections, make the most of your time with subject matter experts by recording your conference calls and receiving an mp4.

Collaborating with subject matter experts is easy when you have a global conference calling plan.

It’s also affordable thanks to our low rates, pay-as-you-go pricing, and contract-free arrangement. Simply pay for the calls you host as you host them. You can cancel at any time.

Give international conferencing a try by signing up today.

Team Conference Call Collaboration

Team conference call is an international video conferencing plan ideal for conducting global team collaboration calls

Team conference call has become increasingly common as more businesses build distributed teams. You may have customer service and support teams, graphic designers, regional sales professionals, project managers, traveling executives, and freelance workers scattered around the globe. The ability to communicate real-time with your global team is essential, and technologies such as web, video, and audio conferencing allow you to do just that.

However, challenges still exist. Below are a few examples:

  • Audio quality — Audio quality is often a concern when speaking with others in far-off lands. If you can’t hear one another or must constantly repeat yourselves, the entire audio conference suffers. It takes much more mental energy, and there’s a great deal of uncertainty as to what was said or what needs to be done.
  • Connections — Conference calls are a simple matter when you’re conferencing with someone in your own country. They’re a little more difficult when attendees are located elsewhere as international long-distance rates can be a barrier.
  • Meeting productivity — Poorly run meetings are rarely productive and generally considered a waste of time. Common problems include: starting the meeting late, spending too much time on some topics and running out of time to tackle the others, going off track on tangents, and lack of focus by attendees who may be multi-tasking or calling in from a distracting environment.

These are but a few of the challenges involved in global team conference call collaboration. Fortunately, with intention, you can overcome them.

Team Conference Call | The number one action you can take to improve your global team collaboration calls is to improve the audio quality.

If your current audio conferencing service consistently suffers from echoes, delays, interference, drop-outs, hollow sounds, garbled audio, line noise, or other issues, switching to a cloud-based platform will drastically improve your global team collaboration calls.

For example, your graphic designer in India could join your meeting and your China based distributor can also join while your marketing director in Thailand could enter your call with a click.

International Video Conferencing • Chat • White Board • Screen Share

Technology is a great place to start, but it doesn’t solve all of the problems. Improving the productivity of your team collaboration calls often requires improving your time management skills, developing a realistic agenda, and sticking to it.

You may need to actively moderate the call, bringing the focus back to the topic at hand and wrapping up agenda items at the appointed time so that you can cover everything without the meeting running over.

Our affordable, international video conferencing plans are ideal for holding global team collaboration calls. You and your global attendees won’t need to dial any phone numbers because you join by clicking a link. So wherever your meeting guests are located, they can join your call with one click.

Try it free and take an important step toward improving global collaboration.

Stakeholder Conference Call | How to Prepare for International Attendees

Staying in touch with investors

It’s as important as ever, and conference calls are an effective means of sharing and gathering information. In today’s ever-connected world, it’s possible that some of your stakeholders live or work in other countries.

stakeholder conference calls meeting

Conducting an international conference call for stakeholders’ bridges the distance, bringing everyone together in a group audio conference. If you need to communicate with an international group, these tips will help you prepare for holding your next global conference call.

Stakeholder Conference Call Possibilities

  • Offer your stakeholder conference call invitees a toll-free or local access number specific to their countries. Our global conferencing plan provides for international access with 150 access numbers for countries around the world.
  • Review and pare down your attendee list, making sure that only those who truly need to participate are invited. Think about who actually needs to be on the stakeholder conference call.
  • Prepare your materials. If you’ll be sharing documents or giving a presentation, consider using a web conference rather than a strictly audio conference. We offer web and video conferencing that works beautifully alongside our international conference calling plans. If you prefer an audio conference, send any materials and the conference call’s agenda to the stakeholders in advance so they can refer to them during the discussion.
  • Rehearse your part of the conference call. Running through a few rehearsals will help to build your confidence as well as fine-tune your presentation. It can also help prepare you mentally for the conversations you’re likely to have during your conference call.
  • Make sure all attendees have access to the conference call. If any of your stakeholders are located in countries that do not have local access numbers, you can use our leader dial-out function to manually join them into your global conference call. Alternatively, one of our operators can join these participants into your call on your behalf.
  • Kick-off your stakeholder conference call by quickly going over a few housekeeping tasks. For example, you might want to review how to mute and unmute phone lines or let participants know that you’re recording the call.
  • You’ll also want to go over the objectives of the call and set expectations for how the audio conference will progress. For example, if you’ve reserved a portion of the call for questions and answers, let the attendees know that they’ll have time to ask questions at the end of the call.

Whether serving a group, corporate, organization, members or other category of stakeholder, businesses can use stakeholder conference calls to ensure their investors stay informed no matter where in the world they may be located such as Switzerland, U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany or anywhere globally.

Holding a stakeholder conference call is a great way to keep investors in the loop. Since you can easily record your audio conference calls, you can keep a detailed record for posterity or share your recordings with stakeholders who were unable to attend your audio conference live. Our international conferencing plans offer an affordable, contract-free way to host global conference calls.

Learn more

Multi Country Conference Call Simplified

Multi Country Conference Call

Most business professionals are well versed in the art of conference calls. Whether using a service or your phone system’s built-in conference calling feature, hosting or joining a conference call has become second nature.

However, when you need to communicate with participants from other countries, it used to be complicated. These attendees no longer need to dial any phone numbers to join your call because when you conduct a multi-country conference call, every meeting guest just clicks a link to join your call.

 

Here are a few tips for simplifying your global conference calls.

Use “Global Video Conferencing” to invite International Attendees to Your multi-country conference meeting.

If your phone system supports it, and if you only have a few international attendees, consider dialing them directly and manually joining them into your conference calls. This simplifies joining the conference call for your international participants. However, it does make your own conferencing tasks a little more complicated. Fortunately, if you use our global conferencing service, you can pre-enter your list of contacts and schedule a call. If you frequently hold global conference calls with the same group of individuals, you can set this up once and then be set for all of your future conferences.

Establish an International Video Conferencing Routine

Conference calling gets easier with practice. While you may stumble the first few times, you’ll eventually find the sweet spot. Once you find a good time that works well for most participants, consider holding future conferences at the same time of day. For example, if you want to host weekly calls with your remote team, find the best time, and then hold all future calls on that same day and time. This allows everyone to get into the habit of joining your calls every week at a set time. This also helps them to keep that time slot clear, avoiding future scheduling conflicts.

Use our International Video Conference Service

Tired of dialing access numbers and entering passcodes? Though they’re easy enough to deal with, joining a call with one click is that much easier! Our Video Conference plan is free to try and easy for moderators and participants alike.

Use our Global Cloud Based Service with HD Audio Quality

If you’ve ever tried to hold a conversation with someone over a poor audio connection, you know how important this is. It’s even more important with a group audio call with people worldwide.

Our global video conferencing service uses modern fiber optic PSTN networks and not VoIP to ensure that your conversations are crystal clear, every time. With 119 local and toll-free access numbers for countries worldwide, our international conferencing service makes it easy for attendees to join your conference calls. They think it’s as easy as joining a local conference call. From yours, it’s seamless — and the visual and audio quality appears as if you’re talking to someone in your own community.

Additional features, such as free MP4 recordings, auto-generated attendance reports, Outlook Add-in, online conference viewer, and 24/7 live operator assistance round out the service. Best of all, our global videoconferencing plan is affordable and typically saves 60% compared to zoom.

Learn more

US Conference Call from Europe

Toll free phone numbers do not work outside of their regions, so the toll free number you’d normally use will be useless to your American participants.

Though you might be in Europe, you may have business associates in USA. While regular phone calls, emails, video chats, and other forms of communication certainly get the job done, what happens when you need to host a conference call? Because some of your contacts are in the United States and others are in Europe (or even somewhere else in the world) your conference call just became global — and not all conferencing services support international conference calls. Here are your options:

1. Provide your USA callers with a direct line into your conference call. Toll free phone numbers do not work outside of their regions, so the toll free number you’d normally use will be useless to your American participants. However, most will balk at having to dial an international long distance phone number in order to participate in an audio conference. It’s potentially costly, and the dialing process unfamiliar.

2. Use our pay-as-you-go USA – Europe audio conferencing service. Our global conferencing plans solve the problem of access beautifully. Rather than requiring your attendees to dial internationally, we provide them with local and toll free numbers specific to their countries, in this case USA. They simply dial a familiar-looking local or toll free number and are instantly connected to your global conference call. Participants located in other countries can join too! In fact, we have local and toll free numbers for more than 150 countries. For those located in the few countries lacking access, a dial-out option is available, allowing you or one of our friendly operators to dial them directly and then join them into the global conference call.

Here’s how to host your first USA conference call from Europe:

  1. Decide to host the conference call.
  2. Invite participants from around the world.
  3. Join the call by dialing a local access number and entering the conference PIN.
  4. Your callers from USA and around the world dial in using their own local access numbers.
  5. Use the live event viewer, Connect app, or keypad to control various aspects of the global conference call such as recording the call or muting a noisy line.
  6. Interact with your attendees.
  7. After the call, receive an auto-generated attendance report and an MP3 recording of the call (if you recorded it).

The Best Choice for USA to Europe Conference Calls

Option number two is by far the better choice for hosting USA conference calls from Europe, and it’s not necessary to get locked into a long-term audio conferencing plan. In fact, you could use our service for a single USA – Europe conference call and let that be the end of it if so desired. Our plans are perfect for both one-time and ongoing conference calling. There are no contracts, no monthly fees, no minimums, and no penalties. Simply pay for the time you use and that’s it.

Best of all, our plan is loaded with desirable features including:

  • Crystal clear sound quality
  • Global PSTN network
  • MP3 recordings
  • Security features
  • Free Connect app
  • Free live event viewer
  • Automatic attendance reports
  • Reservation free
  • Outlook add-in
  • 24-hour US-based live operators
  • Compatible with landlines, mobile phones, VoIP phones, and Skype
  • Competitive per minute rates
  • No contracts, cancel any time

You could be hosting a USA to Europe conference call in a matter of minutes. Sign up is fast and easy. Get started now.

Music On Hold History

Origins of Telecom: The History of On-Hold Music

Whenever you call a business or join a conference call for that matter, chances are you will hear music or a recorded message when placed on hold. It’s practically a given, but this wasn’t always the case. Before on-hold music and messaging came about, all you’d hear was silence. For all you knew, you’d been hung up on! Your only choices were to wait and see if your call would be picked up or hang up and try again later.

Music on hold was born out of an accidental discovery by factory owner Alfred Levy in the early 1960s. The phone lines in his factory were somehow picking up a radio signal from the radio station nearby, and callers could hear music when they were put on hold. It turns out that a loose wire touching a metal girder in the building had turned the building into a crude radio receiver. Inspiration struck and Levy’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked in. He patented his “telephone hold program system” a few years later in 1966.

Levy’s system was intended for subscribers who had multiple incoming extensions or trunk lines as a means of placating callers who had been placed on hold. When placing a caller on hold, traditional phone systems switch the incoming call to a holding circuit rather than to a telephone instrument. Levy’s system adds a program line to the holding circuit, allowing a “program signal” to be introduced. Levy described several suitable sources of program material as “a phonograph, a wire recorder, a tape recorder, a magnetic drum recorder, a live program, a broadcast, i.e. radio program, or a commercial program line such as is employed to supply music to establishments, e.g. restaurants and stores.”

Adding music to the holding system addressed several common problems callers encountered when calling a business and being placed on hold. Rather than hearing dead air and wondering if their call had been abandoned, they now heard music and knew they were still connected. In addition, music alleviated some of the tedium of being on hold.

As with many telecom inventions, Levy’s idea was further expanded upon over the years. No longer seen as just a way to reassure callers that they hadn’t been forgotten, other visionaries saw the marketing potential of “messaging on hold.” According to The Message On Hold Network, the idea for Message On Hold came from listening to an on-hold radio transmission during a call to the bank. A radio commercial came on while on hold, sparking the idea for creating marketing messages to play while callers were holding. Early devices included audio cassettes, much like answering machines of the era. As audio technology changed, so did the devices used for playing messages on hold. These devices have included CDs, digital chips, MP3 files, and now, streaming audio.

It’s important to note that on-hold music and messaging devices that play copyrighted music, whether via an audio cassette, CD, MP3 file, streaming service, or radio broadcast, must obtain appropriate licenses via the three performing rights organizations: BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. These licenses allow them to play copyrighted music to the public. Some music on hold companies build licensing into their service fees, but not all do.

Today, on hold messaging is believed to be the most effective. According to stats compiled by the On Hold Messaging Association, callers stay on the line up to 25 percent longer with on hold messaging than with silences or background music and up to 17 percent longer than with radio. Keeping callers on the line is vital, as 34 percent of callers who hang up won’t call back.

Levy was on to something back in the 1962. He knew that callers didn’t like sitting on hold wondering if they’d been forgotten. His invention has helped make hold times tolerable and paved the way to the creation of another effective marketing channel.

Sources:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3246082A/en?q=telephone&q=hold&q=program&q=system&q=levy&oq=telephone+hold+program+system+levy

https://slate.com/culture/2014/09/history-of-hold-music-how-did-we-end-up-with-handel-tinkling-through-the-telephone.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_on_hold

https://amoa.memberclicks.net/music-licensing-faq

http://callsonhold.com/recognition.htm

https://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/ciscos-musical-legacy-the-story-behind-the-song-youll-definitely-recognize

International Toll Free Phone Number

Quickly set up a convenient, professional communication channel for your international customers to reach your business. All calls are routed over modern PSTN telecommunications networks for the best audio quality available.

International Phone Number User
International Toll Free Phone Number

How to Own an International Phone Number

Are you doing business overseas or thinking about entering a global market? Owning your own international toll free phone number is a smart way to create a local presence in another country without having to establish a physical office. In fact, you don’t even need a physical phone because your new international toll free phone number is 100 percent virtual. Here’s how it works.

  1. Start by visiting our toll free phone number database where you’ll choose the exact type of global phone number you need for a specific country such as a toll-free number, universal toll-free number, or geographic phone number. For example, if you want to own an international toll-free number for the United Kingdom, select United Kingdom followed by toll-free or universal toll-free. Your new UK free phone number will be displayed upon activation. Note, you can also choose local virtual phone numbers for specific cities within many of the different countries.
  2. After selecting the target country and virtual phone number type, enter your destination number. This is the phone that you’ll be receiving your virtual phone calls on. It could be your main office or call center phone number, your mobile phone number, your home phone number, or any other phone number of your choice. You can change this designated number at any time.

Once you’ve entered your destination number, you can either sign up for a free trial or view rates. Rates vary by country and by the number of prepaid minutes you select. However, rest assured, our rates are extremely competitive.

Own Your International Toll-Free Number for As Long As You Want

Since our international toll-free numbers are prepaid and offered without a contract, you can own your new global toll-free number for as long as you’d like. If you need it for a long-term project, you’ll appreciate features such as rollover minutes and our API on-demand integration. If you need your new global toll free phone number for a shorter duration, you’ll love that you can cancel at any time without penalties.

Benefits of Owning a Global Toll-Free Phone Number

There are many reasons why you might want to own your own global toll free number — and just as many benefits. Here are just a few:

  • Quickly set up a convenient, professional communication channel for your international customers to reach your business. All calls are routed over modern PSTN telecommunications networks for the best audio quality available.
  • Create a local business presence in countries around the world without long-term contracts or physical offices.
  • Set up an automatic greeting and control how inbound calls are handled based on time of day and other parameters.
  • Create a menu system diverting callers to the best person to help them based on their language or other factors.
  • Start doing business in multiple countries while keeping your operations centralized.

Getting started with international toll-free numbers is easy and affordable. Try it for free today.

Global Phone Meetings

The Power of Global Phone Meetings

Did you know that a variety of recovery groups use global phone meetings as a means to provide ongoing support to people (and their families) with addictions? This has become a popular tool for support groups, enabling anyone in the world to get support from therapists and their peers.

Whether you’re involved in the recovery industry or not, if you regularly interact with a global audience, consider the benefits of global phone meetings:

  • Easy access — There’s no special equipment needed. Participants can dial in on any type of telephone, from anywhere in the world. Our international conferencing plans include local and toll-free access to 150 countries around the globe. This means there’s no need to remember country codes, exit codes, or calling card numbers.
  • Ad hoc or scheduled meetings — It’s up to you how often and when to hold your global phone meetings. If you like the idea of regularity, you might set up your global phone meetings to take place at the same time, such as every other Tuesday at 8:00 pm GMT. On the other hand, if a matter is urgent, you could initiate a call at any given time.
  • One-to-many phone meetings — Global phone meetings are great for instances where you need to get your message out to many people. Setting your meeting up in “lecture” mode enables you to give an audio presentation over the phone to a group of listeners who’ve called in from around the globe. Think of it like a live podcast where your listeners will have the opportunity to interact with you once you’ve delivered the message and opened up the lines for questions.
  • No travel required — All participants including the host call into the global phone meeting from wherever it’s convenient. Some will join from their homes or offices while others may call from a cell phone while commuting to their jobs on a train or hanging out at their favorite coffee shop. Since there’s no need to travel, the typical expenses of hosting or joining a large meeting are eliminated.
  • Uses for global phone meetings range from the previously mentioned recovery and support group calls to international bidding conferences, global press conferences, business conference calls, small global calls amongst virtual team members, global crisis collaboration and response meetings, global church services, and more. In general, if you have people from around the world with whom you need to communicate, holding a global phone meeting is a great way to bring everyone together for real-time collaboration, planning, and strategizing.
  • What do you need to get started? An affordable, user-friendly international conference calling plan with exceptional audio quality and reliability. Our global conferencing plans take place on modern PSTN fiber optic telecommunications networks for the best quality and reliability and are offered on a pay-as-you-go, contract-free basis. Our rates are extremely competitive. In fact, you may be surprised at just how affordable it is to hold a global phone meeting.

The best way to determine if our international conferencing service is a good fit for your needs is to give it a try. Sign up today and host your first call in a matter of minutes. No contract, prepayment, no credit card required to activate account.