Free phone conferencing with up to 150 callers: FreeConference.com

Small/medium businesses rejoice – there is a service that can provide you with the means to create large conference calls with very little cost to you (the cost of a long distance phone call).

About a month back, I had to schedule a teleconference for our Microsoft Licensing meeting. Just getting these folks scheduled was the hard part, but then I had to figure out how I was going to get three of our resources in on the same conference call (our phone system only allowed two other join-in callers to our existing conference).

So, after a bit of searching, I found FreeConference.com.

FreeConference.com offers a variety of services (some paid, which include 800 numbers - - good for those who do not want to charge their clients with a long distance phone call), but the one that grabbed my attention was the free ‘Web-Scheduled Standard’ offering:

Maximum size:
150 Callers

Maximum time:
4 hours

Dial-in Number:
Long distance number assigned during the online scheduling process

Access Codes:
Participant Access Code assigned by us or created by you

Organizer Access Code assigned by us, changeable on the 'SETTINGS' page

Begins:
When first caller enters the conference ‡

Ends:
When last caller exits the conference ‡

Service Features

• Schedule & manage conferences via Web
• Advanced security features
• Real-time conference management controls
• Automated conference e-mail invitations
• Receive RSVPs with reply comments
• Outlook and Lotus calendaring
• Crystal clear all-digital connections
• Secure and private
• 24-hour automated access to Web-Scheduled conference system

We had our phone conference, audio quality was clear as a bell and we actually went over our scheduled time by about 10 minutes…but was not disconnected.

FreeConference.com offers the following services:

Toll-free calls using the Web-Scheduled Premium 800 + web conferencing for 10¢/minute, with free recording - Pay only 10¢ a minute for toll free conference calls.

Reservationless Premium 800 – Same as above, but with privileges to create impromptu 800 conference calls.

Web-Scheduled Standard + FC Select (Free) – Schedule and manage conference calls at any time for free.

Reservationless Standard (Free) – Make conference calls anytime for free without scheduling.

Also, there is an Outlook Add-in which can allow you to use Outlook’s scheduling capabilities to interface with FreeConference’s service. However, I could not get this to work (Outlook 2007 problem?) - - update...I had to re-enable the plugin under 'Help' > 'Disabled items'. Once re-enabled, it now works.

Outlook Conference Manager Benefits:

Embeds conference information into your Outlook meeting invitation for automatic forwarding once meeting is scheduled

Meeting subject and dial-in number populated into email header for easy access

Integrated with your existing Outlook contact database

Allows you to check availability of participants while scheduling (if enabled within Outlook)

Allows full recurring meeting scheduling and unlimited future scheduling

Automatically adds scheduled meeting and information into all participant’s Outlook calendar for easy access from desktop or synced smart phone

While I’m not sure what the revenue model is for FreeConference, I hope they stick around.

For more details, check out the quick reference guide.