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Buyers guide

Choosing a Telephone Conferencing service - Buyer's Guide

There are so many options to choose from when selecting a Telephone Conferencing service that you could find yourself confused. If you're reading this guide it's likely that you're new to Conferencing, so we'll start with the basics and leave the more advanced stuff until later.

Pricing

One of the main differentiators. Many Telephone Conferencing Service Providers will offer what seems like a very low price, but check the following:

• do they publish pricing or only give you a price once they've spoken to you (to ask you "what's your expected usage", ie "what are you paying now or expect to pay")?
• does any quoted pricing apply only to premium rate or other non-local dial-in numbers (eg 0844 numbers)?
• does any quoted pricing apply to all dial-in numbers or is there a higher price for dialling into numbers in other countries?
• does this apply to all times of the day or only to evenings/weekends? If you're a business user, how likely are you to use the service at night? That said, if you're on nightly calls to the USA, a good evening rate may suit you down to the ground.
• are there any other fees (eg call setup, administration, monthly minimum etc)

Billing

• can they accept your credit card or send you an invoice? Depending on your company or circumstances, you may find one easier to use one rather than the other.
• do they provide detailed billing and can you see a sample? A detailed invoice may be required for you to claim back an expense or submit to Accounts for payment

Can you try it out with no obligations?

It should be possible to try out a service without having to submit credit card details or make any other kind of commitment. Can you try it for free by signing up online without having to call a Sales Team?

Can you view your account online?

It should be possible to retrieve your account details easily, particularly if you've to look up your PIN codes or dial-in numbers for other countries where you want to invite your Guest

Dial-in/Access numbers

Another important question to ask. Does your prospective Telephone Conferencing Service Provider provide local access numbers in other countries? You may wish to have Conference Calls with colleagues in the USA, Australia or Pakistan!

• ask to see a list of numbers for the countries you may deal with
• avoid non-geographic numbers (eg 0870) as these are not always accessible from all telephone networks/mobile networks
• there are Universal Freephone numbers available (mostly start with 00800), but again these aren't accessible from all networks
• local geographic numbers (eg 020 numbers in London) will always be accessible, so if you want to avoid problems with people getting into your calls, stick to these

Maximum Conference Size or Duration

Find out if there's a limit on Conference size or duration - your requirement may be only to have 5 or 6 people join a call for less than an hour, in which case most Service Providers should fulfill your needs. It's worth checking anyway, especially if you want to have larger or longer calls.

Are Web & Video Conferencing available?

You may not want Web Conferencing to start with, but it could be worth considering for the future. If this is the case, it would be ideal to have them both available from one Service Provider.

Features:

Most Telephone Conference Service Providers have a similar range of features, not all of which may be applicable to your needs. The following are some of the most common - if you need more features, they're likely to be available, but this guide is not the place to cover them.

• Mute; allows anyone to silence their own line (eg if a caller is travelling/in a noisy location)
• Recording; allows you to record the conference
• Roll Call; allows you to find out how many people are on the call