USA Canada Conference Call and the Cannabis Business

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Cannabis Business Hosts Conference CallsUSA Canada Conference Call Cannabis Business

USA Canada Conference Call is an excellent way to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and close deals. For cross-border conferencing, providing local access to all parties, whether in USA or Canada is a professional courtesy that is sure to be appreciated. Our US Canada conference call plan simplifies the process of connecting with others in the Cannabis industry in the United States or Canada.

Recreational cannabis is now legal across all of Canada and several states in the US have legalized medicinal and/or recreational use. As businesses grow and establish themselves in this new market, they frequently need to converse with others in their industry.

USA Canada Conference Call Local or Toll-Free Access

Let’s say you’re a distributor in Ottawa and you need to discuss website development with a vendor in Denver, Colorado and a graphic designer in Los Angeles in a conference call. With our USA – Canada conferencing plan, each person would be able to join using either local or toll-free access numbers. For example, you’d dial a 343 number in Ottawa, your web developer would dial a 720 number in Denver, and your graphic designer would dial a 213 number in Los Angeles.

By granting everyone local access, distances shrink. Everyone feels as though they’re calling a local company. This is a subtle benefit of cross-border conference calling. From an account holder’s perspective, conference calling using local access numbers is a little cheaper than using toll-free numbers.  How it works.

That said, the difference is minimal with our affordable pay-as-you-go USA Canada conference call service. Our toll-free access rates are just 2.9 cents per minute for US callers and 3.9 cents per minute for Canadian callers. The advantages of using toll-free numbers for access to your call include simplicity and cost certainty.

For example, Los Angeles is huge with multiple area codes; even within the same area code, local calls may trigger toll charges to the participant. The option to use a toll-free number ensures the participant will not get hit with unexpected toll charges.

Conference Calls on Demand

Like many industries, the cannabis industry is subject to a host of regulations, which vary from country to country, province to province, and state to state. Conference calls provide you with an effective means of communicating with your lawyers, regulators, industry experts, and others involved in ensuring compliance — and you can hold these calls on demand. Our US – Canada conferencing plan does not require reservations, which means you can initiate and hold a conference call at a moment’s notice.

You can also add attendees to a conference call in progress. For example, if your website developer suggests adding a disclaimer to your website and the person who knows the specific wording is not on the call, you could use the dial-out feature to call and add that person to the conference as soon as the issue comes up.

Why Choose a USA Canada Conference Call Plan?

If you do business across the border or frequently interact with contacts on the other side, domestic conference calling plans fall short. They’re not intended for calls outside your country. As a business that collaborates with partners in both Canada and USA, our conferencing calling plan allows you to connect as if you were in the same country — without barriers. We’ve loaded it with all of the features you’d expect and more.

Since it’s a pay-as-you-go service without contracts or monthly fees, you can sign up, use it as needed, and cancel at any time. There are no penalties for inactivity. You are billed only for the time you use in USA Canada conference call. Sign up for an account today and start collaborating across borders.

Learn more about USA Canada Conference Call

International Conferencing Technologies for Healthcare Providers

If your volunteer work takes you across borders, group audio calls can be used before, during, and after your trips.

International Conferencing Technologies

International Conferencing Technologies for Healthcare ProfessionalsHealthcare providers juggle patient care with business administration, practice management, continuing education, professional development, volunteer work, and other endeavors — both locally and internationally.

It’s a challenging profession requiring years of education and training along with extensive collaboration, communication, time management, and money management skills. Various technologies and tools aid in all of the above. Here’s how healthcare providers can leverage international conferencing technologies throughout their careers.

Consult with an International Team of Specialists

Whether you’re preparing to perform a rare procedure, such as a face transplant, or seek advice from leaders in your field, the specialists on your team may be located around the globe. International conference calls allow all of your colleagues and specialists to communicate in group audio calls no matter where in the world they are.

With International Conferencing Technologies, each participant dials into the call using a local or toll-free access number specific to their country.

For example, your colleagues in San Antonio, Texas would dial a local San Antonio number while a cardiologist from Barcelona, Spain would dial a number local to Barcelona. Thus, the barriers to joining a global call are virtually non-existent.

Coordinate Patient Care

If a patient falls ill or becomes injured while traveling overseas, they may require emergency care while abroad or medical transport back home.

Having a global conferencing plan in place makes it much easier to communicate with international healthcare providers, airlines, embassies, and others who may be involved with the case.

Cross-Border Volunteering and Mentoring via International Conferencing Technologies

Many healthcare providers are passionate about giving back to their communities, often through volunteering or mentoring others — or both.

If your volunteer work takes you across borders, group audio calls can be used before, during, and after your trips.

Before — Use international conference calls to plan your trip, coordinate shipments of medical supplies, discuss needs, objectives, and goals, and more.

During — You’ll likely need to stay in touch with your colleagues back home or consult with international specialists while on assignment. Your global conferencing plan works anywhere in the world, so you can continue initiating global calls no matter where you may be working.

After — Your physical presence may last a week or two, but chances are, the project will continue. Though back at home, you can follow-up with your colleagues and patients remotely using global conference calls.

Host Your Own Audio Conferences

Are you the expert? Imagine sharing your expertise, or the expertise of your facility’s team members, with others via audio conferences.

These can range from intimate gatherings with a handful of global participants who want to exchange knowledge or brainstorm solutions with their peers to global “event” calls with thousands of healthcare professionals gathered to listen to keynote speakers.

Whether you have a short-term or ongoing need for global conferencing, we can help. Our plans feature exceptional audio quality, low global rates, and a huge list of conferencing features — all without a contract or monthly fees.

Learn more about International Conferencing

Video Conferencing Improves Knowledge Exchange

Video Conferencing UserHow to Use Video Conferencing to Improve Knowledge Exchange

At the heart of just about every successful business is the exchange of knowledge. Whether between employees, external suppliers and contractors, or the general public, the flow of information is crucial to a business’s success. Knowledge exchange can take any number of forms including telephone calls, in-person meetings, training classes, workshops, trade shows, presentations, written materials, videos, and more. In recent years, web conferencing has become a convenient option. Use the tips below to leverage your desktop video conferencing tools for improved knowledge exchange.

Embrace its Multimedia Capabilities

Desktop video conferencing brings participants together in a multimedia environment, so take advantage of it. With a web conference, users can:

  • Appear on camera if desired — In many cases, just the presenter will appear on camera though it’s also common for multiple participants to turn on their webcams and interact via video. Using video creates a more intimate meeting and allows participants to get a better read on each other’s facial expressions and body language.
  • Communicate in normal speaking voices — much like you would in an audio conference. Whether dialing in on a separate phone line or using a computer’s microphone and speakers, there’s no need to shout or struggle to hear one another. Sound quality has improved dramatically. Using our audio conference lines enable participants from around the world able to interact verbally without line noise, dropouts, echoes, or other audible interference.
  • Share screens — This one of the most popular uses for web conferencing. For example, rather than sending a link to a PowerPoint file and hoping everyone understands your concepts, you could hold a web conference, share your screen, and walk the group through your presentation. Not only can you answer questions or clarify key points as you go, you’ll be able to get valuable feedback from your team as well as the assurance that everyone has received the information. In fact, you can even get an attendance report emailed to you after the fact that documents everyone’s attendance.
  • Share notes and files — Within the video conferencing interface, you’ll find a variety of tools that you can use to create collaborative notes, send links to files, or interact via text-based chat.

Hold Micro Meetings

Desktop video conferencing is easy to use, and your web-based meetings can be accessed virtually anywhere on a smartphone or computer. In fact, you may find it’s smarter to hold a series of “micro” meetings rather than the occasional long meeting. For example, instead of holding a 1.5-hour weekly meeting each Monday, consider holding 15-minute video conference each day. With such a strategy, you can disseminate the most important and relevant information for the day, discover the latest concerns while they’re fresh, and work toward a shared goal every day.

Build a Knowledge Base

Since you can record every video conference you hold, with each meeting, you’re potentially accumulating a great deal of knowledge. Certainly, not every meeting will be worth preserving for the future. However, many will. For instance, if you use a video conference and its screen-sharing feature to teach new customers how to use the various features of your software, you could place the recording on your website as a video tutorial. Internally, you could create a knowledge base of processes, education, tutorials, troubleshooting steps, lessons learned, and more all by recording your web conferences.

Our desktop video conferencing is easy, accessible, and affordable. Try a free 30-day trial and see for yourself just how well it can improve the flow of information in your office.

Desktop Video Conferencing

Hold International Conference Calls from Just About Anywhere

All of our conference calls are carried over modern PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Networks) connections and state-of-the-art conference bridges, which are well known for exceptional call quality — even when connecting participates from remote locations.

How to Hold International Conference Calls from Just About AnywhereOur customers always inspire us with stories of their international conference calls.

Our service has been used in some of the most remote places on earth.

A recent user told us how their company uses international audio conferencing from their oil rigs off the coast of Singapore to communicate with others in Houston, Norway, the United Kingdom, Qatar, Nigeria, Australia, and Singapore. A user in Washington, D.C., says that we’re saving them money, providing excellent quality, and the toll-free access number has increased attendance.

Another user recently told us the service worked well from Bali, Indonesia with no issues “like magic.”

We love these stories. Here’s how you, too, can experience the magic of international conference calls from just about anywhere.

Experience multiple ways to connect

We offer a variety of ways to for your attendees to join your call including toll-free access numbers, local access numbers, moderator dial out, “Connect” app access, Skype access, mobile and VoIP phone access, and 24/7 operator assistance.

  • Host international conference calls from any country — You do not need to be located in the United States to host a global conference call. For example, if you’re in Singapore, you can host an audio conference call with users from around the world. When you dial in, you will dial a local or toll-free access number specific to Singapore while your attendees will dial in using numbers specific to their own countries.
  • Choose the most suitable plan for your needs — We offer several international conferencing plans with each offered without a contract. This makes it easy to change plans should your needs change. If you primarily host international conference calls between USA and Canada, our US-Canada conferencing plan is perfect. Our international conferencing plans offer access numbers for 119 or 150 countries. Whether you have attendees in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, North America, South America, the Caribbean, the Pacific Ocean, or the Middle East, we can connect you all in a global audio conference!
  • Experience crystal-clear connections — Another common comment we hear from our customers is “the call was clear as a bell.” Connection and audio quality issues have plagued many of our competitors, due in large part to cheap VoIP networks. All of our conference calls are carried over modern PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Networks) connections and state-of-the-art conference bridges, which are well known for exceptional call quality — even when connecting participates from remote locations.
  • Pay as you go — With competitive per minute rates and no monthly fees, our international conferencing plans are a pay-as-you-go option that scales to accommodate your conferencing needs. Whether you make one call per month or one hundred — or none for that matter — you pay only for actual usage.

Be ready at a moment’s notice. Activate your global conferencing account now and you’ll be ready to go the next time you need to collaborate internationally.

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Global Virtual Number for American Expatriate Living Overseas

If you’re living abroad with a partner, you can share a global virtual number and set up separate extensions for each of you.

Global Virtual Number for ExpatriatesGlobal Virtual Call Forwarding Number for Expatriates

A global virtual number may be a very important part of an expatriate’s arsenal when on an overseas job assignment.

For anyone that is retiring abroad or has made the commitment to living overseas, staying in touch with your associates, family, and friends back home is a common priority amongst American expatriates or expatriates from any country.

Technology offers a variety of great options including email, text messaging, FaceTime, and more. The humble phone call is also a cherished way to stay connected, but dialing conventions and costs are often a concern.

Fortunately, ex-pats can make use of global virtual phone numbers, an affordable alternative that breaks down barriers to calling one another. Here’s how you can use virtual numbers as an American expatriate living overseas.

A global virtual phone number is a special type of call forwarding number that acts much like a toll-free number. It is local to the host country but forwards the calls to a destination phone located anywhere in the world.

As the account holder, for example, you’ll pay for the charges incurred, when your loved ones initiate the phone call using your virtual phone number. Our competitive no-contract plans keep your costs low. In fact, many of our clients find that it’s cheaper to use a virtual phone number than dialing an international number directly.

We recommend signing up for two virtual phone numbers:

  • A virtual phone number for your host country — You’ll use this number to make cheap international phone calls to your American contacts while living in your host country. For example, if you’re living in Italy, you can order a global virtual phone number for Italy that is similar to a local Italian phone number. It can either be toll-free for Italy or a regional phone number such as a Rome or Milan local number. In either case, you won’t need to dial international access codes or Italy exit codes to reach the destination phone in America. By changing the “ring to” or destination number in your account, you can call virtually anyone in the United States using a low-cost alternative to international long-distance services. Italy Virtual Number Database
  • A virtual phone number for the USA— This is the number to give to your American contacts to dial whenever they want to call you. This virtual number can be a traditional toll-free number or it can be local to any number of US cities across all fifty states such as Los Angeles, Miami, Des Moines, Kansas City, San Diego, and more. Thus, if your loved one lives in Talladega, Alabama, you could order a virtual number with Talladega’s 256 prefixes and forward any calls to your overseas home phone number. Your loved one would dial a local number yet reach you wherever in the world you may be.  US Virtual Numbers

If you simply wish to own a US/Canada phone number that collects voice mails for you and sends them to your email, view info here.  You can buy a phone number in many US/Canada locations.  You can even buy a number in Hawaii. View Hawaii numbers here.

Create a US Hotline Announcement

If you wish to set up a prerecorded outbound message that your callers will hear, you can create informational hotline.  It’s a great solution when a person, company or public entity wants to share information by phone with the general public, prospective customers, or business prospects.

1000s of Callers Can Listen to your Hotline Message at the Same Time with No Busy Signals

Learn more about creating a Hotline for U.S. callers

Once you’ve established your global virtual phone numbers, you can use them immediately to both make and receive international phone calls. You can even set up specific rules so that incoming phone calls are routed to your home number, mobile phone number, or office number based on the time of day.

If you prefer that all of your phones ring simultaneously, that’s an option, too. If you’re living abroad with a partner, you can share a global virtual number and set up separate extensions for each of you, and use the automated voice response system to prompt callers to press the appropriate extension.

Offered monthly with no contract, our global virtual phone numbers are ideal for both long-term and temporary short-term use. Whether you’re on an extended tour, a short overseas assignment, or living abroad permanently, we have flexible global call forwarding plans to meet your needs.

Advanced Features for ex-pat entrepreneurs

Auto Attendant Feature Virtual Receptionist

 

If you intend to use your virtual phone number for business purposes, your virtual phone has an auto-attendant feature built-in, ready for you to utilize if and when desired.

The auto-attendant enables you to have more control over customer service calls and sales leads with advanced global call routing capability.

An Auto-Attendant is a menu-driven system that automatically answers and transfers incoming calls to the callers’ desired extension using the touch-tone keypad.

You can customize your phone number to send calls to an appropriate department, extension, or voicemail inbox, even outside of office hours. You can also set up any extension to (call forward) and ring-to a phone number in a different country when required.

Example | IVR (Auto Attendant Menu)

U.S. Phone Number for Expats

View International Phone Numbers Available in 160 Countries

Expatriate Resources

International Hospitals for Expatriates

Expatriate Relocation Companies

 

International Conference Calls Enable Connecting Offshore Workers

We’ll be happy to call your offshore participants on your behalf and join them into your conference calls with our 24/7 operator assistance.

Remote International Conference CallsJoining Your International Conference Calls

Working with remote teams has become commonplace. Whether you need to collaborate with co-workers from branch offices located overseas or have created a virtual team of independent contractors located in a variety of countries, gathering in a group audio conference call is occasionally necessary. Our pay-as-you-go international conferencing service is the perfect way to bring an offshore team together into a group audio call. However, some of your offshore team members may need a little help connecting. Here’s how you can help them to join your international conference calls.

Country-Specific Access

Start by providing each offshore worker with a list of country-specific access numbers unique to their home countries. For example, if you have team members in India, China, Australia, and the USA, everyone will dial into your conference call using a different access number. Refer to the list of all global access numbers you received upon account activation and copy and paste the access numbers each participant should use.

Mobile Phone Access

If anyone has trouble dialing in using the access numbers provided, they may be using a mobile phone in a country where mobile access numbers need to be used. For example, a participant in China using a mobile phone will need to use one of our China 400 international conference call toll-free access numbers compatible with mobile phones. A China 400 number is a toll-free number that works with mobile phones across mainland China.

Mobile access numbers, where available, are included on our list of access numbers. However, your participants may need to be guided to use the right number.

App Access

Another option you could suggest would be to have the worker download and use our free Connect app. This app works on both Wi-Fi-connected smartphones and computers, allowing participants to connect to your international conference calls without dialing an access number at all. This is helpful for all kinds of situations and personal preferences. Whether a local access number is not available or the user simply prefers the ease of use of the app, joining a global conference call is a simple matter of clicking or tapping to join.

Dial-Out International Conference Calls Access

You may need to dial some offshore participants directly. Perhaps they’re in one of the few countries that don’t have access numbers or maybe they don’t have a smartphone or a reliable Wi-Fi connection. Fortunately, as the moderator of the international conference call, you can dial the offshore participant’s phone number directly and then join the participant into your global conference call. It’s easy to do and ensures that even the most remote of your team members can participate in your global calls.

MP3 Session Recording

The chairperson may begin recording the call at any time.  By simply entering [*1] on the phone keypad, starts the recording of the call free of charge.  The MP3 audio file link will be attached to the attendance report email when the conference completes.

Operator Assistance

Finally, you can call upon one of our live operators for assistance at any time, 24 hours per day. We’ll be happy to call your offshore participants on your behalf and join them into your conference calls.

If you have an offshore team, having multiple ways to connect to your international conference calls from other countries will help ensure that no matter what the local telecom circumstances may be, your team can connect.

International Conference Call Details

How International Telephone Calls Evolved – Over the Air and Under the Sea

Antique PhoneOrigins of Telecom — Over the Air and Under the Sea – How International Telephone Calls Evolved

The invention of the telephone prompted other innovations in communications out of necessity, the so-called mother of invention. Early telephone calls were limited to short distances due to the physical wires they were transmitted over and the inherent weakness of the signal. To make a longer distance call, the call would be routed over a network of wires from one telephone office to the next until the destination was reached, all manually switched by telephone operators.

Innovations, such as the loading coil which strengthened electronic signals and later an amplifier, helped to extend the practical distance of phone lines. In early 1915, the first transcontinental telephone call between New York and San Francisco took place. Buy this was still not adequate for international telephone calls.

Though this system worked fine on land, assuming the appropriate infrastructure was in place, it relied on physical wires. While creating physical connections between the United States and its neighbors Canada and Mexico was certainly doable, connecting the United States to Europe required a different approach.

Undersea cables, which had been used successfully for telegraph transmissions since the mid-1800s, were deemed too impractical for voice transmissions of international telephone calls. Not only was the prospect of laying a cable across such a vast expanse of ocean daunting and expensive, telephone signals tended to weaken quickly, requiring extensive amplifiers and repeaters to boost the signal. These components barely existed on land and were definitely not capable of working underwater.

Meanwhile, back on land, shortwave radiotelephone service emerged, eventually evolving into a series of microwave towers which connected long distance phone calls across the United States via microwave signals. But again, with each station located 30 miles apart, this solution wouldn’t work across an ocean.

The dream of an undersea cable didn’t die. By 1956, it had finally materialized, adding 36 “talking channels” between North America and Europe. This first deep-sea cable, known as the Transatlantic Telephone Cable System 1 (TAT-1), consisted of twin cables with one transmitting voice conversations east and the other transmitting them west. This undersea cable made use of fifty-one 150-foot-long flexible, watertight cylinders on each of the twin cables. Each cylinder contained about 60 components including repeaters and electron tubes.

After the first ceremonial call took place over the transatlantic cable, the cable opened for business. International phone calls between USA and UK cost $4 per minute during business hours and $3 per minute on weekends and evenings in 1956. That’s the equivalent of more than $30 per minute in today’s dollars.

TAT-1 was a success for more than 20 years with just one outage on record, a 3-day outage caused by a broken line off the Scottish coast. It was finally taken out of service in 1978 after becoming obsolete due to the arrival of higher-capacity undersea cables.

This story doesn’t end with the success of undersea transoceanic cables, however. Communications satellites arrived in the late 1950s and early 1960s, creating global telecommunications links by 1969.

Today, international telephone calls travel over the air, under the sea, via space, and even through the Internet using VoIP. Costs have fallen dramatically to mere pennies per minute while quality has improved significantly to the point where callers sound as if they’re in the same room and not half a world away.

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Sources:

“History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy – TAT-1 Opening Ceremony, September 25, 1956.” n.d. Accessed January 31, 2018a. http://atlantic-cable.com/Cables/1956TAT-1/.

“Telecommunications Virtual Museum.” n.d. Accessed January 31, 2018. http://www.telcomhistory.org/vm/scienceLongDistance.shtml.

“Telephone History Part 3 – Long Distance – Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century.” n.d. Accessed January 31, 2018. http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3633.

Public Domain Images:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bell_telephone_magazine_(1922)_(14753105761).jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TAT_1_cable.JPG

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Graham_Bell,_first_transcontinental_phone_call,_25_Jan_1915.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delta-E1_with_Intelsat.jpg

Fax Forwarding and Global Call Forwarding from Japan to USA Set Up

Our global fax forwarding numbers are easy to use, affordable, and offered on a month-to-month basis for more than 140+ countries around the world.

Fax MachineInternational Fax Forwarding

The humble fax machine has yet to become extinct despite the proliferation of email, file sharing, and other electronic communications methods.

In some countries, such as Japan, faxing remains commonplace and may even be preferred over email by some individuals and business establishments. Imagine landing a large customer in Japan who expects to be able to place orders via fax.

You’d probably want to accommodate that request, but how — especially if you ditched your fax machine long ago?  Simply use fax forwarding.

Fax Forwarding Overseas

Fortunately, international fax forwarding exists — and it’s a great solution for this particular problem. With fax forwarding, fax users can use their fax machines and your international fax forwarding number to send you a fax. The fax arrives in your email inbox, allowing you to work with an electronic version of the document without having to buy a fax machine and deal with paper.

Let’s take a look using a US business with a Japanese customer as an example.

Since the customer is in Japan and may not be too keen on incurring international toll charges with every faxed order, you’d be smart to order a local or toll-free Japanese fax number. That way, your customer can fax as many orders as needed without incurring toll charges.

Fax forwarding number types available for Japan are:

Toll-free and toll-free mobile accessible — In this example, you may not need the mobile accessible type since your customer will be using a fax machine to send you faxes.

Universal toll-free — Universal toll-free numbers are a great option if you have a large volume of potential fax users located in many different countries and want to use just one toll-free number for all of them.

Geographic — These region-specific numbers are about as local as you can get. Simply choose the city your customer is located in to get a local virtual fax number. If your customer is in Kawasaki, your number will have the 44 prefix just like other local numbers in Kawasaki.

After ordering your Japan-USA virtual fax forwarding number, you’ll be prompted to configure your account so that all incoming faxes will be routed to the appropriate email address. Once set up, share your new virtual fax number with your customer and get ready to start taking orders via fax.

Our global fax forwarding numbers are easy to use, affordable, and offered on a month-to-month basis for more than 140+ countries around the world. Whether you have a long-term or short-term need, you can facilitate faxing without having to buy a fax machine or get locked into a long-term contract.

International Fax and Call Forwarding

How to Use a Virtual Number for Marketing Purposes

Virtual phone numbers are also commonly called remote call forwarding numbers.

Virtual Number MarketingA Virtual number can be used for many purposes, one of them is marketing. While you may already have a business phone number to advertise, you may want to reconsider and order virtual numbers as a test. Here’s what you need to know.

What is a Virtual Number?

Virtual phone numbers are also commonly called remote call forwarding numbers. They are similar to toll-free numbers, and in fact, might even be toll-free depending on the number you order. For example, with a virtual number, there’s no physical phone attached to the number. Rather, the number is assigned a “ring to” number where all of the incoming calls will be routed.

How can you get a virtual number?

First, decide if you want to use a virtual number.  In other words, do you have a need for one?  An example of a typical virtual phone number use would be to provide an easy way for your customer to call your office for sales or customer service.  You can do that with a virtual call forwarding number.

For instance, if you had a business that sold mail order cupcakes and your office was based in Philadelphia but you had many customers on the west coast, you may want to advertise local phone numbers in Los Angeles or San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego or Beverly Hills.

The same would be true if you had a global business based in the UK.  If your marketing plan included international sales to the US or Thailand or Costa Rica, you can get a local virtual phone number in all of those places and have the calls ring to your UK office.  Your UK business would appear local and convenient to whatever country or city you are targeting.

Thus, if you have a call center in Chicago but want callers from Tampa Bay, Florida to dial a local phone number for Tampa Bay, you could order a virtual Tampa Bay phone number but designate its ring-to number as your Chicago call center.  Your callers in Tampa Bay will feel as though they’re making a local call and will be unaware that they’re actually speaking to someone in Chicago.

Why Use a Virtual Phone Number for Marketing?

If you’re running a national or international marketing campaign, using virtual numbers gives your campaign a local flavor. Callers may prefer supporting a local business. In the case of international ads, your existing phone number would either be a long distance call for your callers or potentially difficult to dial. Plus, you can’t necessarily use your toll-free phone number because it won’t work outside of North America. Global call forwarding numbers solve these problems, instantly giving you a local presence while also eliminating barriers to calling your company.

Another advantage of using virtual phone numbers in your marketing campaigns is the ability to track performance based on the call volume of your numbers. For example, if you run a national ad using your main 800 number, you won’t be able to glean meaningful data from your call logs. Incoming calls could be from anywhere including from existing customers. On the other hand, if you have virtual numbers dedicated to each campaign, your call logs will tell you exactly how many calls each campaign generated. Take it even further by using local numbers for each geographic area you want to track.

  1. Determine the geographic areas you want to track during your marketing campaign.
  2. Order virtual phone numbers for each of those areas.
  3. Place your virtual phone numbers in the appropriate advertisement, making sure that the number only appears in one ad.
  4. Review your call logs during and after the campaign to gauge which ads generated the most interest.

You can also use two different virtual numbers to A/B test your ads. For example, if you want to test two different headlines in an ad, use two different virtual phone numbers to see which headline resulted in the most phone calls.

Since our virtual phone numbers are month-to-month and contract-free, affordable, loaded with features, and have no cancellation fees, they’re perfect for marketing campaigns. Once the campaign is over, you can cancel the virtual number without penalties. Local, toll-free, and international virtual numbers are available.

View worldwide database of call forwarding virtual numbers here

Remote Design Review Conference Call Hosting

In order to keep your Remote Design Review Conference Call on track, it’s helpful to create and share a checklist or outline covering everything that needs to be reviewed.

Remote Design Review Conference CallRemote design review is a crucial part of marketing campaigns, website builds, and project and product development. However, what if the key participants are not geographically close?

In today’s business environment, designers, stakeholders, and project managers are likely to be located in different offices — if not different cities, states, or countries!

Fortunately, holding a remote design review is easier than ever thanks to audio, video, and web conferencing technologies. Here’s what you need to hold your own design review meetings remotely.

  1. Choose the most appropriate conferencing technology for the type of design you’re reviewing. Designs are most often visual in nature, making video or web conferencing the more popular choice for this type of meeting. With video, you could hold up a prototype, demonstrating how it works or pointing out specific features. Web conferencing is ideal for sharing screens where you can walk participants through an onscreen demonstration of a website or application.

That said, audio conferences also work, especially if you’ve shared the design files in advance. For example, if your participants have the same wireframes or blueprints in front of them, an audio conference can be a cost-effective choice for reviewing the design documents.

  1. Go in with a tightly focused plan. Remote design reviews don’t need to be long, drawn-out affairs. They aren’t the time to dig deep into conceptual matters or explore ideas beyond the scope of the project, either. Rather, they should focus on previously decided upon design decisions and whether or not the current design delivers on those decisions. For instance, if your team has previously decided the design should have an easy-to-use mechanism for adjusting the volume such as a knob or lever, part of the review will involve evaluating that mechanism. Is it intuitive and easy to use? Does it take the agreed upon form? This isn’t the time to suggest integrating voice commands.

In order to keep your review on track, it’s helpful to create and share a checklist or outline covering everything that needs to be reviewed. If you’re holding a video or web conference, consider using a collaborative note so everyone can follow along. You can do something similar on an audio conference by directing everyone to a shared document such as a note in Evernote or a Microsoft Word document in Office 365.

  1. Seek and document feedback. The design review process is all about gathering feedback so that the design ultimately fulfills all of its requirements. Keep in mind that there will likely be some back and forth between team members. Differences of opinion may lead the discussion off track, so be prepared to actively moderate the conference. Once a consensus has been reached, restate it so everyone is clear and then document it in your collaborative note.

Based on the feedback received, the design can be further refined.

  1. Record your remote design review meeting. Whether using audio, video, or web conferencing, it’s smart to record it. From there, you can either write down the key takeaways and action steps or send the recording off to a transcriptionist. Be sure to share your notes, transcript, recording, and action steps with your design team.

Modern remote design review conferencing solutions help bring remote teams together, and they’re easy and affordable. Check out our pay-as-you-go audio, video, and web conferencing solutions today.

Learn more about audio, and web conferencing.

Global Conference Call in Progress and How to Add Attendees

When to use an operator to connect an attendee to your conference call: When you’d like to continue the conference with existing attendees while the operator calls and communicates with the attendee or when there are multiple attendees that need to be joined.

Global Conference CallIt’s not unusual to be in the midst of a global conference call only to realize that you need to add an attendee to the call in progress.

Perhaps a key person forgot to join the call, is experiencing technical difficulties, or is located in a country that lacks a toll-free or local access number.

Maybe the group needs to hear from a subject matter expert who is standing by to join the call upon your request. Either way, it’s possible to add attendees to a global conference call that’s already happening. Here are a few ways to accomplish this task.

Use the Moderator Dial Out Function

As the moderator of the global teleconference, you have access to controls regular attendees do not have. The dial out control allows you to temporarily step out of the call, dial the third party directly, and then return to the conference call with the third party joining in at the same time.

This can be done with just a few entries on your telephone’s keypad:

  • Dial * 1 plus the individual’s phone number. Speak briefly with the other person about joining the conference call that’s currently in progress.
  • Dial * 2 to return to the conference call and instantly add the other person at the same time.

When to use the moderator dial out function on your phone’s keypad: When you’d like to speak briefly with the attendee before joining him or her to the conference and can afford to pause the conference call while you do so. For example, lawyers often use this method to join a judge into a conference call in progress.

This way, the judge can join when the legal team is ready. Having set up the conference call and coordinated timing with the judge, you can dial the judge’s number and quickly announce that you’ll be connecting him or her to the conference call.

Use the Connect App

Our global conferencing service plans include access to a free app that makes managing your teleconferences extremely convenient. When running as a web app on your computer or mobile device, you have a variety of tools at your disposal, including the ability to bring other attendees into the conference call. You can even preprogram the attendee’s name and phone number into the app for even faster dialing.

Note: Attendees can also use the Connect app to connect to your conferences directly without having to dial an access number.

When to use the Connect app to connect an attendee into your global conference call in progress: When you’re at a computer or using a mobile device while moderating a conference call. With this method, you use the graphical user interface of the app rather than the phone’s keypad to initiate moderator dial-out.

Ask an Operator for Help

Our global conferencing plans are also supported by live operators who work 24/7 to ensure that the conference calling experience is the best it can possibly be. Our live, US-based operators are just a key press away (*0) and able to troubleshoot issues and connect attendees as needed.

When to use an operator to connect an attendee to your conference call: When you’d like to continue the conference with existing attendees while the operator calls and communicates with the attendee or when there are multiple attendees that need to be joined.

Whether an attendee is standing by to join your meeting for a short portion of it or you have attendees who are having trouble dialing directly, our global conferencing plans provide several alternate connection methods.

Learn more about global conferencing here

Conference Call South Korea with Global Guests

Not only can you host the conference call from South Korea, you can have participants join the call from USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, or wherever else your contacts may be located.

conference call south korea

Conference Call South Korea

This year’s host of the Winter Olympics, South Korea, has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and is also one of the world’s top ten importers and exporters.

Whether you do business in South Korea, are an avid sports fan, or have family in South Korea, business back home doesn’t stop when you’re visiting the country. Holding global conference calls from South Korea is one way to stay in touch from the Korean peninsula.

Setting Up a conference call South Korea

Our international conferencing service provides toll-free access numbers for countries around the globe at competitive rates. Thus, not only can you host the conference call from South Korea, you can have participants join the call from the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, or wherever else your contacts may be located. For you and all of your attendees, the conference call is completely localized. They do not need to dial a South Korean number just because that’s where you happen to be initiating the conference.

To set up the conference call, you’ll need to:

  • Choose a suitable time and date, keeping time zone differences in mind
  • Invite participants to join you in a global conference call
  • Send participants the call details (access numbers and conference PIN)

Conducting the Conference Call from South Korea

Conducting a global conference call South Korea is similar to conducting any other conference call you may have managed in the past. You can manage your global conferences via an online dashboard or use your phone’s keypad to perform functions such as mute, request operator assistance, or launch the dial-out command to dial an attendee’s phone number directly and manually join him or her into the conference call.

Because attendees will be joining your South Korea conference call from around the world, you probably have concerns about audio quality and cost — and you should because not all telecommunications services are created equally. We’re committed to delivering the best audio experience technology can bring, which is why we use modern fiber optic PSTN networks and not VoIP. We’re equally committed to keeping our global teleconferencing service affordable and flexible, which is why our per minute rates are competitive and our plans offered on a pay-as-you-go basis without contracts or monthly fees.

Having a high-quality global conference calling plan that’s available when you need it, but without recurring monthly costs, can help you stay in touch wherever your travels take you.

Learn more about Conference Call South Korea here

When 3-Way Conferencing is Not Enough — How to Hold a 10-Way Conference Call with Global Participants

It’s important to note that while our rates are low, our service is phenomenal. This is NOT a cheap unreliable VOIP plan; it’s a PSTN global conference calling plan known for its quality and reliability.

10 person call communicationMany business and residential phone systems offer 3-way calling as a standard feature. It’s a great way to bring a third party into an existing call, but it’s not nearly enough for more robust conference calls.

Plus, if you need to bring in someone from another country, 3-way conferencing can become tricky and expensive.

Our global conference calling plans are an affordable, easy-to-use alternative with no minimum usage requirements or monthly fees. You can host conferences with just a handful of attendees or dozens quickly and easily. As an example, here’s how to hold a 10-way conference call with participants from around the world.

Identify Each Participant’s Countries

Since there are several access options which do vary from country to country, you’ll want to gather some information before the call to ensure that each participant has an easy means of connecting to your conference call. Below are the more common access scenarios for international attendees:

  • Toll free access numbers — These are country-specific access numbers, so a caller in Italy, for example, would dial a toll free number that’s local to Italy. The access number then connects the caller to the conference bridge — all without the caller incurring toll charges or having to request operator assistance to make an international phone call.
  • Local access numbers — Again, these are regional. Your Italian participants could be given a local phone number for Naples, Rome, Milan, or another city in Italy. If they’re in that particular calling zone, then they’d avoid toll charges because it would be just like dialing any other local number in their community. Meanwhile, the call would be routed to the conference bridge.
  • Access via our Connect mobile app — Another option is to connect via our Connect app, which takes care of the dialing with just a quick tap.
  • Moderator dial out — There are a few countries with limited access numbers or per minute costs that may be higher than you’d like. For participants in those countries, consider using the moderator dial-out tool to call them and patch them into the call rather than the other way around. Dial-out rates are nice and low, too.

Choose a Global Conferencing Plan

The countries you’ve just identified will guide you in choosing the most appropriate global conferencing plan. Our plans are as follows:

  • USA – Canada conference calling — Perfect for cross-border conference calls involving participants in USA and Canada.
  • Legacy conference calling — This is one of our most popular plans. It includes global access numbers for 119 countries.
  • Expanded conferencing calling — Our expanded plan increases the number of access numbers to 150 including local city and toll free numbers.

Each of the above is offered on a pay-as-you-go basis with no contracts, no activation fee, no early termination fee, and no minimum usage requirements. You pay only for the minutes consumed in global conference calls — all at extremely competitive per minute rates.

Calculating the Cost of a 10-way Global Conference Call

Using the countries involved, you can estimate the cost of the call by looking up their rates.

Let’s use a 10-minute, 10-way international conference call as an example of costs using current costs as of December 2017 (rates subject to change).

Caller 1 – USA, Toll Free $0.026/minute, total cost = $0.26

Caller 2 – Canada, Toll Free $0.026/minute, total cost = $0.26

Caller 3 – Italy, Rome $0.07/minute, total cost = $0.70

Caller 4 – Philippines, Dial-Out $0.11/minute, total cost = $1.10

Caller 5 – Hong Kong, Toll Free $0.08/minute, total cost = $0.80

Caller 6 – Russia, Moscow, $0.10/minute, total cost = $1.00

Caller 7 – Monaco, Toll Free, $0.12/minute, total cost = $1.20

Caller 8 – South Africa, Johannesburg, $0.13/minute, total cost = $1.30

Caller 9 – Brazil, Toll Free, $0.16/minute, total cost = $1.60

Caller 10 – Guam, Toll Free, $0.026/minute, total cost = $0.26

Total cost of the 10-way global conference call: $8.48 USD

Since there’s no ongoing costs and no penalties for non-usage, you could create an account and use it just this one time — or you could use it as needed, paying only for the conference calls you hold.

It’s important to note that while our rates are low, our service is phenomenal. This is NOT a cheap unreliable VOIP plan; it’s a PSTN global conference calling plan known for its quality and reliability.

The next time you need to host a conference call, whether global or local, give us a try!

View more details about Global Conferencing here

 

Pioneers of Teleconferencing | Origins of Telecommunications

We owe a debt of gratitude to the visionaries who pioneered teleconferencing technologies.

Doug Englebart - Pioneers of Teleconferencing of the First Two-Way Video Conference

Dialing into a conference call or clicking to connect to a web conference is second nature to many business professionals these days. These tools have become invaluable in our always connected, global business world. We owe a debt of gratitude to the visionaries who pioneered teleconferencing technologies.

Doug Englebart – Inventor of the First Two-Way Video Conference
Doug Englebart is credited with demonstrating the first two-way computer and video teleconference on December 9, 1968. He and a group of fellow researchers at Stanford Research Institute’s Augmentation Research Center presented a live public demonstration of an online system that they had been working on. They presented several innovations including screen sharing with two people located at different sites communicating over a network using an audio-video interface. The entire presentation was conducted online using closed circuit hookups. So, not only was the presentation about videoconferencing; it was a video conference.

You can view video clips of Englebart’s 1968 videoconference demonstration at: View video clips of Englebart’s 1968 videoconference demonstration
Englebart was a man before his time, having invented and patented the computer mouse well before personal computers became mainstream. By the time PCs became popular in the mid-1980s, his mouse technology had fallen into the public domain.

In all, Englebart had 20 patents to his name including patents related to email, networking, the Internet, and interface windows.

Walter Shaw – Pioneers of Teleconferencing & Inventor of Conference Calling
The man behind the teleconference has several inventions to his name: conference calling, call forwarding, touchtone dialing, security system dialers that call the police, and the answering machine to name a few. He was even commissioned by President Eisenhower in 1954 to create a “red phone” to serve as an emergency link between the White House and Moscow.

Walter Shaw was considered a telecommunications genius, working for Bell Telephone for decades starting in 1935. Disputes with Bell over his patents and the rights to them eventually caused Shaw to leave the company. Now on his own, Shaw eventually began working for the mafia and invented what was known as a “black box.” The black box allowed callers to make untraceable, free long distance phone calls.

Shaw’s dark path ultimately ended with a conviction for illegal phone usage in 1976. It also forged a connection between his son and the mafia, with the younger son becoming a notorious jewel thief said to be responsible for the theft of $70 million in goods across more than 2,000 heists.

Web Conferencing Pioneers of Teleconferencing

Though the first online two-way video conference took place in the late 1960s and included features such as collaborative screen sharing, webinars as we know them began to appear in the early- to mid-1990s.

Among the earliest modern web conferencing Pioneers of Teleconferencing is the Global Schoolhouse Project from Global SchoolNet. In 1992, GlobalSchoolhouse.org launched thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation to showcase online collaborative learning. The site allowed participating schools to join live two-way audio-video conferences over the Internet.

In the business world, software such as NetMeeting, PlaceWare, Starlight Networks StarLive!, and WebEx soon followed. Eric Korb, the founder of Webinars.com, is credited with coining (and originally trademarking) the term “webinar” in 1998. The trademark was later transferred to InterCall followed by West Corporation and its subsidiaries.
Teleconferencing has a long, rich history and continues to be a mainstay in business.
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Sources

“Doug Englebart, Inventor of Mouse and Teleconferencing, Dies.” 2017. Accessed October 13. Doug Englebart, Inventor of Mouse and Teleconferencing, Dies.

“Eric Korb | TrueCred.” 2017. Accessed October 13. Eric Korb | TrueCred.

“‘Genius on Hold’: An Inventor, His Jewel Thief Son and Steve Jobs – Latimes.” 2017. Accessed October 13. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/01/business/la-fi-tn-movie-about-telecom-pioneer-by-his-son-the-jewel-thief-20130228.

“Global SchoolNet – It’s Not About the Technology – YouTube.” 2017a.
———. “Global SchoolNet – It’s Not About the Technology – YouTube.” 2017b. Accessed October 13. Global SchoolNet – It’s Not About the Technology.
“Global SchoolNet: GSN’s History.” 2017. Accessed October 13. Global SchoolNet.

“History of Webinars – Importance of Webinars and Webcasts.” 2017. Accessed October 13. History of Webinars – Importance of Webinars and Webcasts.

“United States Patent and Trademark Office.” 2017. Accessed October 13. United States Patent and Trademark Office.

“Webinar Definition, Origin & History.” 2017. Accessed October 13. Webinar Definition, Origin & History.

“Webinars – History and Trends – InsiderHub.” 2017. Accessed October 13. Webinars – History and Trends.

How to Divert International Phone Calls to the Correct Department with Global Call Forwarding Numbers

We recommend keeping your system simple, without too many levels of prompts to avoid frustrating your callers.

Divert Phone Calls InternationallyGlobal call forwarding numbers are an effective telecommunications tool. Not only do they help with centralizing incoming calls from around the world, you can create a virtual PBX system to ensure that your international callers are routed to the correct department or individual. Here’s what you need to know.

Choose Your Global Call Forwarding and Destination Numbers

If you don’t already have a global call forwarding number, you’ll need to order one, making sure the plan supports Interactive Voice Response (IVR) / PBX (ours does). As an example, if you need to receive calls from Italy in your US office, you’d need to order an Italian global call forwarding number and set it up to ring to your US office. This will divert calls from Italy to your main office.

However, what if your receptionist doesn’t speak Italian? Or what if you anticipate receiving a variety of call types such as questions about shipping, technical support, or billing? Using the IVR feature makes it possible to prompt callers to select the appropriate department.

Configure Interactive Voice Response

The Interactive Voice Response feature can be customized to best meet your needs. Common elements include the following:

  • A greeting – Depending on how you want to set up your system, the greeting could welcome callers and identify the business before connecting the call to a live person or voicemail. It could also be informational only or prompt the caller to make a choice.
  • Prompts / menu options – Like the name implies, Interactive Voice Response is interactive. Thus, you’ll need to set it up with prompts and menu options such as “press 1 for shipping, 2 for technical support.”

You’ll need to set up both for diverting your international phone calls to the appropriate department. Before you configure the IVR feature, it’s helpful to plan it out on paper. Below are a few considerations when planning how to set up the IVR:

  • Will there be a choice of languages? If so, this should be your first prompt so callers can choose the appropriate language and/or be routed to a fluent representative.
  • Which departments will callers likely need to reach? Write these down along with their direct phone numbers and extensions.
  • How will you handle international calls that come in after hours? With time zone differences, it’s likely that your international callers will call you during their business hours, but not necessarily yours. It may be necessary to use time of day routing and an alternate call center, answering service, or voicemail for your after hours calls.

We recommend keeping your system simple, without too many levels of prompts to avoid frustrating your callers. Write a brief script for each prompt and then set up the IVR accordingly. This is a simple process that involves filling out a few forms and following the prompts. Having your different prompts, scripts, and phone numbers in hand will make this task much easier.

After setting up the IVR, test it by calling the international call forwarding number and pressing the keys when prompted. If the system responded as expected, your business is ready to begin receiving and diverting these international calls.

Setting up global call forwarding to use the Interactive Voice Response feature allows you to direct callers to the right people in your office who can help them. It’s also an efficient use of resources and an excellent way to create a “virtual PBX.”

https://www.aitelephone.com/global-call-forwarding.html

A Brief History of Video Conferencing

However, high speed access to the internet became more common,  everyday computers came equipped with microphones and webcams off the shelf, and simple web-based video chatting solutions such as Skype emerged.

Modern Times trailer (1936).webm – Wikimedia

Telecommunications tools today, especially video call conferencing, make the world a smaller place. With just a few clicks or taps, you can initiate or join a global video conference, seeing and hearing the other participants in full motion video. The technology powering video conferencing is truly amazing. While Skype was one of the first to popularize video conferencing in 2003, the idea of communicating over long distances both audibly and visually dates back more than one hundred years! Let’s take a stroll through time to learn more about how one of the most innovative tools in use today evolved.

Video Conferencing in the 1800s and 1900s

Yes, we’re going all the way to the late 1800s, the 1870s to be exact. During this time, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, the concept of transmitting an image alongside audio over a wire was born. In the years following, the concept was largely relegated to the realm of science fiction. EM Forster’s The Machine Stops novel depicts a futurist post-apocalyptic world where people rarely travel; they communicate via video screens and have all of their needs served by an all-encompassing “machine.”

It took about a half a century before the concept materialized in 1927 when Bell Labs connected several Washington, D.C. officials with the president of AT&T in New York City in an audio/video phone call. This call included a two-way audio connection and a one-way video connection.

Yet, the technology didn’t go far, other than in the movies. Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 film Modern Times, for example, featured a video phone where a factory executive relayed instructions to factory workers.

In 1964, the “Picturephone” debuted at the World’s Fair in New York City. As innovative as the Picturephone was at the time, it failed to take off. Some believe that people of that era disliked face-to-face communication over the phone while others think the one-to-one nature doomed it to fail. After all, where video conferencing today really shines is in group settings.  Several organizations were involved in spurring this technology forward including Post Office Telecom (British Telecom) in Europe and, later, Stanford University with its Virtual Auditorium.

In 1982, Compression Labs launched its CLI TI video conference system. Big and bulky, CLI TI also came with a huge price tag of $250,000 — plus, each call cost $1,000 per hour.

During this era, the hardware alone took up an entire room. This coupled with the high costs involved meant only a few larger businesses could adopt the technology.

By the mid-1990s, personal computers and Internet access became more common, opening the doors to desktop video conferencing. Intel was one of the pioneers with its ProShare for Windows PC software. Users at the time needed a PC with a sound card, microphone, and webcam — and high speed Internet.

Video Call Conference — or “Distributed Collaboration” — in the 2000s

In 2000, Lester F. Ludwig, J. Chris Lauwers, Keith A. Lantz, Gerald J. Burnett, and Emmett R. Burns filed for a patent, which was later granted to Collaborative Properties, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Avistar Communication Corporation),  for a “computer-based system designed to enhance collaboration between and among individuals who are separated by distance and/or time.”  They referred to this as “distributed collaboration.”

Picturephone

 

 

 

 

 

The inventors noted the shortcomings of other systems of the time such as:

  • A lack of high quality video
  • Limited data-sharing capabilities
  • (For non-visual communications technologies) The inability to convey facial and non-verbal cues

The inventors envisioned users starting with a “collaborative multimedia workstation” (CMW) with high quality video and audio capabilities installed within a system architecture with separate real-time and asynchronous networks.

Data Sharing Component video call

In addition, the inventors included a data-sharing component where visual information such as screenshots (or “snapshots of screens” as the inventors called them) and the sharing of both he control and display of applications (application sharing). Each participant had the ability to annotate or point at the shared visual data. Plus, the entire teleconference, including audio and video as well as shared data, could be recorded from each collaborative multimedia workstation.

This invention certainly had promise, and many of the concepts noted in the original patent are commonly included in modern video conferencing solutions.

However, high speed access to the internet became more common,  everyday computers came equipped with microphones and webcams off the shelf, and simple web-based video chatting solutions such as Skype emerged.

In fact, Skype arrived in 2003. It was no longer necessary to have serious network architecture in order to conduct free audio calls, complete with text messaging and the ability to share files with other people. All you needed was a free download and Internet access. Video calling soon followed in 2006.

Though Skype helped bring the concept of desktop video calls to the mainstream, it wasn’t alone. Apple’s FaceTime launched in 2010. Other services soon followed.

Today, various companies over affordable video conferencing options and plans both as unified communications systems for the enterprise and as cloud-based services. Either way, the days of $1000 per hour calls are over.

Read on

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Sources:

“8 Fun Facts From the History of Video Conferencing.” 2017. Accessed August 16. http://www.methodshop.com/2014/11/video-conferencing-facts.shtml

“A Brief History of Skype | TIME.com.” 2017. Accessed August 16. http://techland.time.com/2011/05/10/a-brief-history-of-skype/

“About Collaboration Properties, Inc. and Avistar Communications Corporation for Avistar_Communications (AVSR).” 2017. Accessed August 16. http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Avistar_Communications_(AVSR)/Collaboration_Properties_Inc_Avistar_Communications_Corporation

“FaceTime Creator Details Its History, Including Code Name – CNET.” 2017. Accessed August 16. https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-engineer-details-facetimes-history-including-original-codename/

“Modern Times (Film) – Wikipedia.” 2017. Accessed August 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film)

“The History of Skype.” 2017. Skype. Accessed August 16.

“The History of Video Conferencing.” 2017. Accessed August 16. http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/tech/history-video-conferencing/

“The Machine Stops: Did EM Forster Predict the Internet Age? – BBC News.” 2017. Accessed August 16.  http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36289890

“The Video Auditorium.” 2017. Accessed August 16. https://graphics.stanford.edu/~miltchen/VideoAuditorium/

“US7185054B1 – Google Patents.” 2017. Accessed August 16. https://patents.google.com/patent/US7185054B1/en?q=video+conference

“Video Phone – TV Tropes.” 2017. Accessed August 16. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoPhone

“Videoconferencing | Communications | Britannica.com.” 2017. Accessed August 16. https://www.britannica.com/technology/videoconferencing

Party Lines, the Original Group Audio Call

Party Line - The Original Conference call
Party Line – The Original Conference call

When you pick up the telephone at your home or office, it’s a given that the call will take place over a private line.

You know that whether you initiate a call with one, two, three, or more individuals, only those you’ve specifically included will be on the call.

It wasn’t always this way. In fact, party lines, which are a type of shared / group telephone subscription service, were the dominant type of phone service for decades.

By the 1950s, when they were just starting to fall out of favor, roughly 75 percent of all residential customers in the United States were on party lines.

What is a Party Line?

A party line is a local telephone line shared by two or more subscribers. When the party line was in use, any other subscribers could pick up their telephones and listen in. This meant that there was absolutely no privacy. If you needed to make a phone call and the line was in use, you’d simply have to wait your turn. In most states, if you had an emergency and announced your emergency as such, the other parties were legally obligated to hang up so you could make your emergency call.

Whose Line Is It? How Recipients Recognized Calls Intended for Them

When someone called the group party line, all of the telephones within that group would ring. Can you imagine the chaos with dozens of people answering at once? Fortunately, the telephone company had an answer for this: custom ringtones (or “signal codes” as they were called back in the day)!

According to the Cyclopedia of Telegraphy and Telephony, the signal code for each “station” typically consisted of combinations of long and short rings, much like Morse code’s dots and dashes. For example, station 1 would be notified with one short ring while station 2 would receive two short rings. Recognizing that people would have difficulty interpreting ring sequences above five, the higher numbered stations would use long and short rings. For example, station 11 would have a signal code with one long ring and one short ring while station 12’s signal code was one long ring and two short rings.

Thus, if your home was designated as station 11, you’d keep your ear out for one long ring followed by one short one.

While common sense would dictate that people would only pick up the telephone when their signal code rang, reality was a different story. Eavesdropping was a serious concern, so much so that the Bell System produced a short film and a comic book about party line etiquette in 1946.

https://youtu.be/nL0TDHfvTSU

Not only was eavesdropping considered rude, as it is today, having multiple parties connected to the line at the same time drained local batteries and impaired the ringing efficiency of the party line due to the way the current passed through the infrastructure.

Determining the Size of a Group Party Line

The phone company had to weigh several factors to determine how many stations to place on a single party line. It wasn’t a matter of the central office’s capacity, but rather finding the balance where multiple parties could use the party line without undue interference from other users and easily interpret their own signal codes without having to suffer through non-stop ringing.

Telephone “traffic” was also analyzed. In general, city dwellers tended to make short, two or three-minute phone calls whereas rural callers tended to chat for much longer – up to a half hour or more. Thus, rural party lines typically had fewer subscribers than their urban counterparts.

Party Lines Phased Out

As you can imagine, having to wait a half hour or longer to maybe get a chance to make your own phone call was annoying — and knowing that your conversations were likely being listened in on unsettling. Private lines were available, but there was a backlog during World War II. By the 1950s, private lines became more readily available and party lines fell out of favor between the 1950s and 1970s. Local circuit loops, however, found a small niche with young adults for a time, with topic- or interest-specific party lines serving as a pre-Internet social network. Between 1988 and 2000, most big phone companies had eliminated party lines altogether.

Looking back at the way phones were used in the past, we realize that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Today, three-way calling and conference calls are excellent choices for family and business communications. Fortunately, all the negatives of the old party lines, such as lack of privacy and having to listen for your own signal code out of many, are long gone.

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Old Bell Party Line Etiquette video here:

 Sharing link:

http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2012/6/6/AT&T-Archives-Party-Lines

Togo International Conference Calling

There are no contracts, no monthly fees, and no commitment, yet you get competitive rates and advanced conference calling features like MP3 recording, PSTN connections, dial-out tools, a live online conference viewer, and more.

Togo FlagYou can host Togo international conference calls by using our global conference calling service. While we offer toll free and in-country access numbers for over 100 countries, for Togo international conference calls, the access to the call is enabled using the Connect app or via the dial-out feature or by requesting the connection from the 24 hour operator.

Fortunately, there are several convenient options for hosting or participating in Togo global conference calls using our pay-as-you-go service.

We suggest the following:

  • Use the Connect app — This is a free mobile and desktop app that makes accessing Togo international calls a simple matter of tapping a button. The app routes all calls over our modern PSTN fiberoptic telecommunications network, ensuring that your Togo conference calls are crystal clear no matter where in the world you or your participants may be. It also allows you to manually join other participants as well as record your conference calls. When you connect using the app, you get our competitive dial-out rates, too.
  • Use the dial-out feature — have the chairperson if located in one of the 100+ countries where toll-free access exists, dial-out to you in Togo to add you and your Togo based participants to your call.
  • Ask for operator assistance — Our US-based operators work 24/7 and are readily available to connect you or your participants to your Togo conference calls.

The Togolese Republic, or Togo as it’s commonly called, was once known as Togoland. Togo is one of the smallest African countries measuring just 22,000 square miles. The country is located in West Africa next to Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, and the Gulf of Guinea. The official language is French, though numerous languages are spoken throughout Togo.

Togoland was a German protectorate from 1884 through World War I, at which point it became French Togoland. Togo gained its independence from France in 1960 but, according to CIA World Factbook, has been ruled “with a heavy hand” for nearly 40 years. Togo’s former President Eyadema took over in 1967 after a military coup and ruled until his death in 2005. His son, was installed as president in the aftermath. Togo’s first free legislative elections were held in late 2007. A presidential election in Togo has since followed, but not without controversies.

Today, Togo is home to 7,552,318 people. It is a poor country with about half of the population living below the poverty line, low life expectancy (especially among men), and high infant mortality. Togo has also been impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Commercial and subsistence agriculture make up the bulk of Togo’s economy, yet Togo imports basic foods. Togo’s main crops are cocoa, cotton, and coffee which collectively represent about 40 percent of Togo’s export revenue. Togo also is rich in phosphate and is one of the largest phosphate producers in the world.

Because it relies on agriculture, Togo’s economy is vulnerable to weather conditions and international coffee, cocoa, and cotton price fluctuations.

Telecommunications in Togo

According to CIA World Factbook, Togo had 63,200 filed line telephones in 2014, which is about one fixed line phone for every 100 people. In 2014, Togo had 4.8 million mobile cellular phone subscribers, or about 66 mobile subscribers for every 100 people.

The CIA World Factbook describes Togo’s phone system as fair. The network is primarily based on microwave radio relay with supplemental open-wire lines. Togo has one satellite earth station and is connected to the West Africa Cable System.

According to Africa and Middle East Telecom Week, the fixed line operator in Togo is Societe des Telecommunications du Togo (Togo Telecom). Mobile operators in Togo include Moov and Togo Cellulaire.

As of 2014, just 336,000 (4.6 percent of Togo’s population) people in Togo were Internet users. Internet cafes are a popular option for accessing the Internet. According to an undated article on BalancingAct-Africa.com, Togo has more than 200 Internet cafes in its capital city. Internet services include dial-up and fixed and wireless broadband. The two largest Internet service providers are Café Informatique et Télécommunication, a private company, and Togo Telecom, the incumbent phone company.

Togo International Phone Calls

If you need to call someone in Togo from another country, Togo’s international country code is 228. First, dial your country’s exit code and then dial 228 followed by the phone number.

If you are in Togo and need to call someone in another country, Togo’s exit code is 00. Dial that followed by the international country code for the other country and then the phone number.

Hosting Togo conference calls is easier than you may think, and our pay-as-you-go international conferencing plans are the perfect choice. There are no contracts, no monthly fees, and no commitment, yet you get competitive rates and advanced conference calling features like MP3 recording, PSTN connections, dial-out tools, a live online conference viewer, and more. Sign up for an account today and begin hosting international conference calls in Togo and around the world.

What does pay-as-you-go mean?

The pros clearly outweigh the cons of pay-as-you-go pricing for USA and Canada conference calls.

Pay as you goPros and Cons of Pay-As-You-Go Conference Calling

Pay-as-you-go pricing models have become increasingly popular in the telecommunications industry.

Is it the right choice as far as business conference calling goes?  It could be. Check out the pros and cons listed below.

  • You pay only for the time you and your conference attendees spend in conference calls. With pay-as-you-go pricing, there are no recurring fees or minimum usage requirements. Thus, on months where you don’t use the service, you don’t pay. Verdict: PRO!
  • There’s no long-term contract. If you company makes a very high volume of conference calls on a regular basis, you might get a better deal by signing up for long-term contract. However, there’s that long-term contract to consider — and you may be surprised to find out that pay-as-you-go per minute rates are competitive with contracted plans. What happens if the audio quality of the service is bad? What if attendees from Canada cannot join your USA conference call? What if you find that you don’t actually use the service as much as you thought you would use it? What if the service is unreliable, or worse, unusable? That’s a lot of “what if’s,” and with a contract, you’re stuck until the term is over. If you’d rather not deal with contracts, pay-as-you-go is the way to go. Verdict: PRO!
  • Pay-as-you-go rates are competitive. Our USA and Canada conference calling rates are mere pennies per minute. Even our highest rate for local Canada access is just 2.9 cents per minute. Local USA access is just 1.7 cents per minute. By the time you overpay for a conference calling plan with minutes you don’t use, you may find that your contracted plan is more expensive than you realized. Verdict: PRO!
  • Pay-as-you-go conference calling providers in the US and Canada need to be competitive, thus they include advanced features to be as competitive as possible. In a competitive landscape like the telecommunications industry, being competitive isn’t just about having the cheapest rates; it’s also about being an exceptional value. Our conference calling plans are packed with the most advanced features and are powered by modern, reliable telecom networks and infrastructure. Live operators are available around the clock, too. Verdict: PRO!

Hmmn, we’re having a tough time thinking of any cons involved with pay-as-you-go conference calling. In fact, since there are no contracts and no penalties for canceling the service, even if you were completely unhappy, you can move on, no questions asked. Your satisfaction is important to us though, so we welcome your feedback.

The pros clearly outweigh the cons of pay-as-you-go pricing for USA and Canada conference calls. Whether you expect to make a lot of conference calls for just a few here and there, consider giving our service a try. We’re confident that you’ll find that going this route is a great choice.

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Using International Conferencing for Latvia Team Members

You pay only for what you use, and there are no contracts to sign, no minimum usage requirements, no surprise fees, no costly add-ons, and no penalties if you cancel. Our rates are extremely competitive, too.

Latvia Riga Daugava BridgeWhether you travel to Latvia frequently or infrequently, when in the country, you may realize you need to hold a group audio call with your colleagues back home. Perhaps you’re in your home country, but some of your team members are in Latvia.

You may even have participants from various countries around the world. This can cause some concern if you don’t have a plan, or it could be a non-issue thanks to our international conferencing plans with local and toll free access numbers for more than 100 countries including Latvia.

Activating an International Conference Calling Account is Easy

We make it easy to sign up for and activate international conference calling accounts. Once you’ve done so, you can host international conference calls with attendees around the world.

Using Our International Conference Calling Accounts is Even Easier

As the host of a Latvia conference call, you’ll first need to determine when to hold your first conference call and then invite attendees. Everyone will use a phone number that is local to their own countries in order to join your global conference call. For example, those in Latvia will dial a Latvian phone number or a toll free Latvian phone number. Those in other countries will be given access numbers for their own countries. This makes dialing and joining an international conference call as friction-free as possible for your participants.

We include free tools and advanced features to ensure that your global conference calls go without a hitch. Start by using either the online live conference viewer or downloading the free Connect app. These tools allow you to:

  • Dial attendees directly, manually joining them into your conference calls
  • Mute and unmute individual phone lines to keep ambient noise from interfering with your conversations
  • Lock your conference calls to prevent interruptions or unauthorized entry
  • Record your international conference calls
  • And more…

Communicating with Your International Colleagues is as Easy as Ever

Hosting a global conference call in Latvia, or any other country for that matter, may sound intimidating at first, but it’s easy. There’s no special equipment required other than a standard or mobile phone. Virtually any phone can be used including soft and VoIP phones. There are no complicated dialing conventions to figure out or software to download. Simply dial a local or toll free number, enter the conference room PIN, and communicate with your colleagues from around the world.

Our Latvia global conference calls are carried over modern fiber optic telecommunications networks (PSTN not VoIP) to ensure optimal voice quality and unsurpassed reliability. The sound quality is phenomenal. Though oceans may separate you, it won’t sound that way.

Communicating with Your International Colleagues is as Affordable as Ever

Our pay-as-you-go global conferencing accounts are ideal for businesses of all sizes, including small teams. You pay only for what you use, and there are no contracts to sign, no minimum usage requirements, no surprise fees, no costly add-ons, and no penalties if you cancel. Our rates are extremely competitive, too.

If your business crosses borders, you need a plan, a global conference calling plan.

View details about Latvia conference calls here