When choosing which conference calling service to do business with, it’s a good idea to have an idea of what kind of rates to expect. Most conference call services will charge rates based on the amount of time used, the amount of people or locations involved in the call, a set-up fee or a membership fee, and surcharges for particular calls placed. There are some companies that will charge rates based only on the minutes used. There will be no set up fees, no membership costs, and very few, if any surcharges. The services offered by each will vary as well.

A typical conference calling company will charge you some sort of monthly or yearly fee for their services. It may be a membership fee, it may be a fee that covers part of your expenses for that month, and it may be a fee to buy so many minutes of conference calling time. Whatever it is used for, it is usually a part of your expenses as a conference call service user. When a conference call is set up, you will then be charged a certain per minute fee that is multiplied by the number of participants in the conference. For instance, if there are three participants and the charge is ten cents a minute, you’ll actually be paying thirty cents a minute. Those charges can add up fast when there are many participants and the conference lasts longer lengths of time.

A flat rate conference provider offers something a little bit different which they claim will not cost as much as the other service providers yet will offer comparable services. These types of services charge a flat rate per minute based only on number of lines dialed in. There are no service fees or membership fees. Anyone can call in and participate all over the world. There can be up to fifty participants joined into the conference call. There is no operator assistance necessary; everything can be done through the moderator of the conference call. There is no reservation necessary. These calls can take place any time, twenty four hours a day and no notice is necessary. There is toll free customer support included if necessary and all participants dial in using a toll free number.

Rates can vary greatly from company to company offering these conferencing services. Be sure to research each one thoroughly before you decide which company to provide your conference calls through. Each will have its benefits and drawbacks and those will outweigh one another until you’ve found the service that will work within your budget and timeline. Conference calling services, no matter which company you go with, will still save you a bundle over travel expenses for one or more associate to attend a conference. No matter which service you choose, you’ll be making a money saving decision when you decide to use conference calling.

Voice Over Internet Protocol is one of the latest discovery in the field of communication. The simple function upon which it sells itself is the factor that it uses the Internet to make calls. Endowed with several advantages, VoIP is believed to be one of the best and the most economical ways to make calls to international locations today. Moreover, quite easy to set up and use, the service can be availed easily too.

As said earlier, VoIP lets you make domestic and international calls through the Internet, wherein you are charged for the Internet facilities you are using during the call process. In this condition, you have to pay only the local call charges and the usual Internet expenses. Thus, it makes no difference whether you are calling an international location or domestic one since the charges will remain the same. Thus, for companies operating in different countries, and for people who make a lot of international calls, VoIP is the best solution to cut down on telephone bills and save plenty of money.

Further advancements have deployed Internet telephony (prepaid phone cards) to be availed free of cost. All you need is a headset, sound card, a computer and an Internet connection. The next thing you need to do is to download any of the many VoIP software packages like Skype, Net2Phone, Gizmo and Free World Dialup. After you have installed any of these softwares, ask all your friends or people you want to chat with to install the same software. After the software has been loaded on both sides, you are free to make calls.

Not only is this service seamless, but quite economical too. Using VoIP solution assures you better voice quality than what you get on traditional calling. Moreover, VoIP enabled phones are equipped with several features like call forwarding, voice mail box, redial button and call records, which make the communication easier. Portability is another important feature attached with it. Even when you are travelling, you can make calls through Internet telephony.

VoIP on WiMax will make the latest 3G technologies obsolete before they are completely installed. The reason is because 3G cell phone technology is capable of 2Mbs while WiFi is at 11Mbs in bursts and WiMax will be even greater therefore 3G is not needed as VoIP over WiMax is going to provide more data, faster speeds and greater numbers of users. WiFi and WiMax may actually solve the goals of conquering the digital divide. There will be a small price for this disruptive technology. There will be small legal battles fought such as this one over territory with government agencies and private sector. In the WiFi Online Newsletter commenting on a Wall Street Journal Article we saw Verizon fighting with the City of Philadelphia over their city wide WiFi and if you think about it they do potentially have quite a bit to lose don’t they?

There will also be issues with frequency pollution from other uses in close proximity of the frequency band being sent out. There will be issues with the human biological system, birds, animals and pets. There will also layoffs caused by such disruption and some bluff layoffs to sway political intervention thru careful manipulation of “K-Street” style guerilla lobbying. There will also be issues with first to market and frequency allocations from the FCC. There will be consumer complaints due to bandwidth being used up and services too slow for users.

There are already some heated battles going on with the use of power lines to deliver Internet to the home because it will disrupt Ham Operators. The layoffs in Telecom have been astronomical in recent years. New technologies while they give the industry new life, new directions to grow they also provide for some fierce competition between players. One of the most recent issues was the VoIP FCC ruling, which said that VoIP couldn’t be taxed by states, as it is an Internet Service not a phone service. This was a major ruling for the VoIP Industry and will add billions of dollars in capital from investment banks and venture capital firms.

Recently I was at a WiFi Verizon Hot Spot and there were six people with computers there, two playing video games on the Internet, One using VoIP another downloading a big file, needless to say surfing at any acceptable speed or collecting 1000 emails (most 90% SPAM) was out of the question. Although patrons have paid $19.95 per month for internet access there will be issues with speed and bandwidth as the Internet is soaked up by VoIP and excessive emails. WiMax promises to solve this problem with speeds of 75MB per second as opposed to the WiFi burst speeds of 11MB or the mobile satellite solutions at 1-2 MB per second. Still all of these solutions blow out of the water the old dial up speeds. 3G Wireless was thought to be the savior, yet with speeds on the very lowest end of the spectrum, even devices like the Blackberry (RIMM), or the AT & T iGO do not stand a chance on such services.

Right now 3G network is nearly complete and works good for phone calls and instant messaging, but is quite lacking for video or picture emailing. As new devices come out such as movie watching, international calling, music downloads, projection video, hologram messages, 3G, 4G even 5G and what some in the industry call 6G will not be able to use with the current 3G towers across the nation. Even with 1000:1 algorithm compression there is a limit on the devices and system. The Telecom Industry has taken a huge hit in the last five years with massive layoffs, accounting irregularities and overpriced bidding for frequency allocation, which amounted to investments based on pie in the sky wishful thinking potential consumer numbers even from a monopolistic standpoint, it was simply not possible. The frenzy to over pay for these frequencies was out of control and we saw the fallout occur as predicted by many an insider.

So how does the future look now? Well, all in all things are looking good, we have capital flows to new entrants, large corporations finding partners and re-investing profits in an industry which seems to have new life blood and can be called anything but static.