Over the course of the last decade, the conference call landscape has changed significantly. It was formerly the case that only larger sized corporations had access to multi party teleconferencing systems. These systems were typically quite expensive and often featured live operator assistance on every call.
Monopolist telecom companies priced teleconferencing services at high rates (e.g twenty five cents plus per minute per user) and most corporations were willing to pay these charges to ensure reliable and quality services. Now in recent years the conference calling market has seen a high degree of competitive forces. Several factors have been responsible including telecom deregulation, significant improvements in internet technology and demand for better offerings.
The competitive landscape now consists of seemingly countless companies in addition to the incumbent bell operating companies. Organizations and individuals that want to use conference calling now have a far wider menu of alternatives. Within that range of providers are free conference calling offerings such as  www.Rondee.com that meld free conference calling with web based scheduling and other productivity tools. These companies do not charge users because they use a toll dial-in as opposed to a traditional toll-free dial-in. Thus, such free conference call services are not free in the same sense that air is free. They do require minutes of telephone usage.
However, such services are increasingly being perceived by users as basically free because many phone plans now offer flat rate “all you can dial” and most cellular plans no longer carry additional charges for long distance phone calls. On account of these factors, conference calling has become available to a far wider market of users as the following use-cases demonstrate.
Labor unions have effectively used traditional conference calling systems and, increasingly, free conference calling services to allow disparately situated members to talk about strategies and organize meetings. Unions have historically been cost conscious because their budgets are constrained to the extent of member contributions. Therefore, 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. In other cases, it enables remote campaign workers 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 impossible to ensure a physical presence. In the most recent primary season, Democratic candidates in New Hampshire received extensive media publicity on highly publicized conference calls undertaken to reassure big donors and influential political commentators that their campaigns could survive the brutal pace of the campaign season.
Early stage companies have long felt the same requirement for conference calling as was true for established businesses. However, it was not until the development of cheap conferencing and free conferencing alternatives such as Rondee, that early stage companies could avail themselves of the benefits. Young companies might use these systems to coordinate work with remote developers in Eastern Europe or Russia, discuss design themes with graphic artist designers (in the case of Web 2.0 start-ups), or simply discuss work-plans with disparate members of the core team.
Families have typically in the past not used conference calling as a method of keeping in touch. That is now starting to change. The widespread availability of discount or free conferencing services is now helping families to schedule time when parents can talk to 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 up to date with loved ones.
In sum, conference calling is no longer the exclusive domain of business. Other possible users have long felt the need but it has only been with the development of new business models that the availability of these services has become quite ubiquitous.
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