Part 1/5
Communicating is in my blood. When my Father was sent home from the hospital to await his son’s birth he used his favorite hobby, ham radio, to help him pass the time. He turned on this radio station, fired up the amplifier, and talked to Cuba.
Perhaps it is inevitable that I ended up in international telecommunications. I have found that many customers searching for an international conference call service don’t recognize some of the challenges that come with communicating across the planet.
This article series will help anyone planning to host international conference calls. It will identify important issues to address and outline the right questions to ask before clicking on a conference call company’s website sign-up button or speaking to someone in sales. You will be able to avoid common mistakes often made when choosing an international conference call provider.
First: Don’t Use A Free Service.
Laying a fiber optic cable under the ocean or placing a satellite into orbit costs money. International telecommunication requires transmitting a voice 29,000 miles around the world so that it clearly conveys the subtleties of human speech. Conference service providers have invested in international trunking facilities or telecommunications transport arrangements that are specially engineered to meet the challenges of global communications. The transport of international communications is not free any more than is the transport of international air travelers. If it is not free to your conference call provider, how can it be free to you?
It is possible to provide free access to your conference call for your participants. International conference call companies have access phone numbers located in countries around the world. The participant dials the access phone number to join the conference call. Toll-free access numbers are free for the participant to call. The chairperson incurs all the charges for the conference call. Toll numbers are not free for the participant and participants are billed for the call by their local telephone service provider.
Some companies will offer a free trial. Ask if the free trial runs on the system you will use regularly. Better still, ask if there is a satisfaction guarantee for every conference call. It is important that the service be reliable every time you use it and not just during a trial period. Free also means ‘free’ of any customer service. So you may be on your own during the call. Free services will be worth what you pay. Unless your business is a hobby, forget about free.
Watch for the next blog post: Don’t Ignore the Infrastructure
