With the computer and internet boom, many businesses find that they hardly use their telephones now, but the one area that they have held their own in is area known as conference calling. This effectively means that several people can take part in the same call, so you can be sitting in London having a three way conversation with associates in Tokyo and New York.
Long gone are the days of simple telephone conversations between just two people. Conference calling has had a vital place in business for decades now, since Bell Labs first came up with the concept in 1956. and the reliability and sound quality of today’s phone lines still make it the favourite option for many of today’s businesses. There has been a big leap forward in conference calling technology in recent years, and VOIP calls in particular have become extremely popular.
VOIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol, allows the user to take part in conference calling over the internet using a headset to communicate. The big plus with this kind of conference call is the cost, whereas before you had to pay a service provider for the conference calling facility, using providers such as Powwownow for a phone conference costs virtually nothing.
The most popular VOIP server by far is Skype, where you simply register and open an account and add your contacts. This kind of conference calling is quick, easy, and you can include as many people as you want into the conversation at no extra cost. The telephone will never disappear completely, but as far as conference calling in concerned, VOIP is the future.
