In order for conference participants to reach our service, each one must call a telephone number. For Envoy conferences this number may be local or long distance, depending on their location.  The costs for this type of conference call are whatever long distance rates are charged by each individual conference participant's long distance carrier (Sprint, MCI, AT&T, etc.).  We do not require the use of any specific carrier, nor do we know what rates you pay on your calling plan.  

For Executive 800 conference calls the dial-in number will be a toll-free number.  The conference Organizer will pay $0.09 per minute for each Participant in the conference.  Since the Participants in the conference will use a toll-free number they will not pay anything to use our service.

For further information please refer to our Services chart for a detailed comparison of our 3 conference products. 

We have created a QuickStart Guide to acquaint you with our conference call services, and to help you decide which service best suits your needs.  Click here to get started.  

Conference calls have a guaranteed time slot on our conference bridge at a specific time for a specific number of participants.  You reserve this time slot in advance using this Web site and call the dial-in telephone number the Web site issues to you.  You can choose the time and date and the number of participants, but our Web server will determine which of our conference bridges you will use.  More information.  

Most often, this happens when the person using our Web site doesn't complete the process of reserving the conference by selecting "confirm this conference".  It is very important to follow the prompts all the way through the process until our system reads "confirmed conference".  Please visit the Conference Manager page of our site well in advance of your scheduled conference time and verify that the upcoming conference is displayed there.  Also, you may wish to take advantage of our e-mail invitations and confirmations feature to gain a measure of confidence that the conference is truly reserved on our server.  

Conference calls can include up to 150 participants.  For further information, please see our Services comparison chart. 

If you have a reservation for a conference call you may dial in at any time during the time period of the reservation.  You will not be locked out if you are not present at the start of the conference.

In any conference call, no matter what conference bridge or provider you use, the clarity will decrease somewhat as you add more Participants. The more conference Participants, the more likely the use of cell phones, cordless phones, speakerphones, headsets, background noise, and other low-quality transmission problems. Also, there is more chance of someone putting the call 'on hold' without remembering to mute their phone and broadcasting their 'hold music' or radio station to the remainder of the conference.

Basically, it is human error that causes problems as a conference grows larger, and generally not our conference bridge. Since all lines are bridged together, a conference call can never be better than the worst connection on the call. For additional information, please see our guide to Eliminating Background Noise and Distractions.

Yes, we toll-free customer support for our services. The toll-free customer support number, along with a support authorization number required when calling customer support, is displayed on the confirmation page and e-mail once a call is scheduled.

Our conference bridges are physically located on the premises of telephone company central offices and are connected to the telephone network via high capacity digital circuits.  Our equipment does not itself introduce echo or noise into the conference.  However, echo or noise can enter the conference through the telephone lines used by one or more of the participants in the conference.  It is the nature of teleconferencing that all sound brought in to the conference is amplified and rebroadcast out to all the other participants in the conference.  If there is a barely noticeable echo in a two-party conversation, it may become a very pronounced echo in a 30-party conference call.  We STRONGLY recommend that all participants in the conference use only high quality telephones and avoid cellular phones, cordless phones, headsets, etc.

If you encounter an echo or noise during your conference you can try the following procedure:  Ask everyone to mute themselves using touch-tone *6 (see Hotkeys).  Then, slowly, one at a time, each participant should un-mute him or herself (again using touch-tone *6).  When the echo or noise returns, the "culprit" will have been identified.  That person should be asked to hang up and dial back in again, using a different telephone if possible.  

If you use our Quick Scheduler feature, (see What is Quick Scheduler?) you can easily schedule multiple conferences in quick succession, up to 11 months in advance. In addition, if you use our RSVP email invitation tool, you can organize your contacts into groups and with one click, copy your group into the e-mail invitation for your conference. Scheduling each conference should take less than one minute. 

Conference call lengths are only scheduled in increments as specified on the web site.  You may call in up to 20 minutes early but you will hear music-on-hold until the scheduled start time of your conference.   If facilities are available at the time your conference is scheduled to end, our system will automatically extend it if it runs long.  See our Services page for a comparison between our different services.

Quick Scheduler saves you time by "copying" previous conference settings into a new conference in 3 easy steps. Just select any previously scheduled conference, input your new date and time, then Quick Scheduler will duplicate your attendees, organizer code, access code, subject, agenda and invitees. You can still edit any conference setting on the manage page as usual. 

This is not an internet call.  You dial using an ordinary telephone into our conference bridge at a pre-arranged time.  The other participants in your conference will also dial the same telephone number and meet you there.  

Yes, we offer Conference Recording, Computer Download and Telephone Playback of your conference call. (learn more).  If you wish, after the conference has ended we will contact a qualified third-party transcription service on your behalf.  

The facilities (circuits) required for all conference calls are pre-allocated and reserved at the time they are scheduled.  If only one or more callers can't get through, it's likely a long distance carrier problem.  Have them use a "dial around" or 10XXX number and try again.

Due to numerous technical problems that can result from connecting two conference calls together, such as loss of volume, confusion of conference controls, poor sound quality, echo and uncertain disconnect supervision, we do not support this and strongly recommend against it.  

Yes. You should be able to reach our conference systems from anywhere in the world.  Of course, you will incur international long distance charges if you are not within the United States when you call.  

Our Premium service provides toll-free numbers that can be reached only from within the fifty United States and Canada.  If you use our Executive 800 service we provide a long distance dial-in telephone number for use by callers who are outside the USA and Canada.