Martin Geddes often writes that the correct price of a phone call is … *free*. My brother just sent me a link to this North American-based conferencing company that will give you 120 days of a free conference bridge that will mix up to 96 callers. I’ve only given this cursory review, but it appears to have no gimmicks, they plan to provide free audio conferencing indefinately, hoping to upsell you to data conferencing, web collaboration, etc. Their FAQ has some interesting infomration
What are the costs involved in a FreeConferenceCallâ„¢? Only normal long distance charges by each caller’s carrier apply. There will be no bill or charges from FreeConferenceCall.com for this service.
Is there a limit on how many calls I can make? No, you may make an unlimited number of calls and have an unlimited number of access codes if you feel it necessary.
How many callers can be in a single conference? 96 caller maximum in each conference with no required minimum number.
Is there a limit on the length of a FreeConferenceCallâ„¢? 6 hours per conference, there is no limit on how many hours you conference each month.
Is this a “Free Trial” or limited time offer? No, we intend on offering this service on a continual basis. We do require that you reregister every 120 days to purge abandoned accounts and make geographic adjustments to the network.
How do you make money offering a free service? Through the sales of other related products like data conferencing and toll free audio conferencing offered on the home page. No you are not required to purchase anything to use the free service, we encourage it!
Are you going to sell my email information? No. We will send you an occasional email with information about the web site, the services being offered and changes that are made to the network. (See privacy policy at bottom of this page)
What I find most interesting about this is that the cost of a) local inbound, and b) software based mixing technology has come down to the point where it is a viable model to give away free conferencing. I’m sure this being run off of one of the VoIP backbone providers, and I bet I could even name which one and also lay out their product architecture.
Neat stuff.