In the past twenty years, the conference calling landscape has undergone considerable change. It was formerly true that only larger businesses had access to multi participant conference calling. These systems were typically quite expensive and often featured live operator participation on every call.

Monopolist telecom companies priced conference calling services at costly rates (e.g. over twenty cents per user minute) and most corporations were willing to pay these charges to guarantee reliable and quality services. Now in recent years the conference call market has been characterized by a high degree of competitive forces. A variety of factors have been responsible including telecom deregulation, significant improvements in web technology and demand for better offerings.

The competitive environment now consists of dozens of providers in addition to the incumbent bell operating companies. Organizations and individuals that desire to use conference calling now have a far wider selection of alternatives. Within that spectrum of choices are free conference calling offerings such as Rondee that meld free conference calling with web based scheduling and other productivity tools. These companies do not charge users for the reason that they use a toll number as opposed to a traditional toll-free dial-in. Therefore, such free conference call services are not free in the same sense that oxygen is free. They do require minutes of phone usage.

Notwithstanding that, such services are increasingly being perceived by users as basically free because many telecom plans now offer flat rate unlimited dialing; and typically cellular plans no longer carry additional charges for long distance phone calls. Due to these trends, conference calling has become available to a far broader market of users as the following examples illustrate.

Labor unions have effectively deployed traditional conferencing systems and, increasingly, free conference calling services to enable disparately located members to talk about strategies and organize meetings. Unions have traditionally been cost conscious because their budgets are limited to the extent of member contributions. So, as is typically the case with non-profits, unions frequently search for methods of making every dollar stretch further. In times of contract negotiations or other situations of urgency, conferencing becomes a viable method of enabling the national leadership to communicate with chapter leaders.

Political campaigns now use teleconferencing conference calling on a frequent basis. In some cases it is used to allow candidates to connect with contributors or volunteers. Alternatively, it enables remote consultants to work with locally situated campaign staff. For state-wide or national campaigns, conference calling becomes even more essential as a method of ensuring frequent communication because it is truly not possible to ensure a physical presence. In the most recent primary season, Republican candidates in Iowa received extensive media publicity on highly publicized conference calls undertaken to reassure large donors and influential political analysts that their campaigns could survive the harsh pace of the campaign season.

Early stage companies have long felt the same requirement for conferencing as was true for established corporations. However, it was not until the advent of discount conferencing and free conferencing alternatives such as Rondee, that early stage companies could avail themselves of the benefits. New companies might use these services to coordinate work with remotely located developers in Eastern Europe or Russia, discuss design themes with graphic artist designers (in the case of Web 2.0 companies), or simply discuss work-plans with disparate members of the core team.

Families have typically in the past not employed conference calling as a means of staying in touch. That is now beginning to change. The wide availability of discount or free conferencing services is now helping families to schedule time when parents can speak with multiple children or even grandchildren. The same is true, in reverse. Younger family members are starting to introduce parents and grandparents to the benefits of conferencing as a means of deepening relationships and staying connected to loved ones.

In summary, conference calling is no longer the exclusive domain of corporations. Other possible users have long felt the need but it has only been with the launch of new business models that the availability of these services has become more ubiquitous.

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Mindy Carpenter talks and writes often about technology related topics. She consults to a number of firms that use communication technologies around conference calling, as part of their approach to increase efficiency. Her clients include free conference calling companies such as Rondee.