Posts Tagged ‘Phone Internet’

Is an Online Conference Call a Good Thing?

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

The telephone conference call has been around for a long time, but now with the advent of the Internet and phone calls over the Internet what about the online conference call? There are services that promise to be able to give you cheap or even free conference call services online.  So, is an online conference call a good thing?  Here are some of the things you should consider if you are thinking about trying an online conference call.

  • Quality- The first thing you need to consider when thinking about an online conference call is the quality.  It used to be you would n0t even consider doing a phone call over the Internet let alone a conference call.  But the Internet network improved and then people started to get high speed access and the option started to make some sense to people.  VOIP (Voice Over IP) technology has come a long way but it is still not of the same quality as a regular telephone call.  There are traffic issues with the Internet and the connections to it that cause irregularities that you do not notice when surfing the Internet but will surely notice when you try to make a phone call over it.  And with an online conference call you don’t have just one call going on but you will have any number of participants on an online conference call and that uses even more bandwidth.
  • Reliability- Reliability of an online conference call is much the same as the quality in its issues.  Everyone has experienced hits on their Internet connection that cause loss of data and even outages altogether on their Internet connection.  It is bothersome if you are on your PC when this happens but if you are on an online conference call when this happens it can be disastrous.
  • Accessibility – Probably the biggest argument against an online conference call is the issue of accessibility.  When you do an online conference call all of the participants need to have access to a PC and an Internet connection.  This defeats the whole concept and convenience of a conference call.  With a regular conference call you can join the conference call from anywhere you have a telephone.  And with mobile phones that is virtually anywhere.  And even if everyone is sitting at their desk to attend your online conference call not everyone has the equipment on their PC to be able to participate because you also need a microphone or a headset.
  • I do believe that someday the network will be ubiquitous and we will be communicating through our PC or similar device but for now the best place for a conference call is on the plain old telephone network.

    Conference Calls help make Holidays happen

    Monday, October 12th, 2009

    Sitting here on Columbus Day and working, as I always have, has made me think about all the holidays I have had to work and how conference calls have helped make them happen.  It seems over the past ten years especially, the pressure to produce more with less in the American work place has made it normal to work on holidays.  And it seems there are fewer and fewer  holidays that we celebrate.  So how do you keep up with work expectations and still make time for family and friends on the holidays.  It isn’t the only answer certainly, but conference calls have save more than one holiday for me.

     

    Here you are, it is Columbus Day and you have planned to take a personal day or floating holiday to spend with your family because the company you work for doesn’t recognize Columbus Day as a paid company holiday.  And just as you are heading out of the door on the Friday before the holiday you are asked to hold a meeting to discuss a very important topic that is time sensitive and must happen on Monday, your day off.  How can you manage to keep everyone happy and still keep your day off?  Why a conference call of course!  The beauty of technology world we live in is the ability to conduct business from just about anywhere.  As long as you can get a signal on your cell phone and an internet connection, most people can continue to do all of their job functions without missing a beat.  And a conference call allows you to put that technology to work and conduct a group meeting from a distance without sacrificing anything.  With a conference call you can meeting with your group just as you would in person and use a web conference to further enhance your meeting with pictures as well. 

    So, enjoy your holidays.  Even when something comes up that requires you to meeting with a group of people you can still have your meeting without physically having the need to go to your office by using a conference call.

    www.zipconferencing.com