AUDIO CONFERENCING  
Audio conferencing is growing rapidly due to the increasing numbers of remote workers and limited travel budgets. At the same time, technology is making audio conferencing better, easier to use, cheaper, more flexible and powerful.

CONFERENCE BRIDGES
Conference Bridges are external devices (or on some PBX'es cards that can be added) that are purpose-built for providing "industrial strength" conference call capabilities. In addition to simple connections, they have additional features such as 'meet me' functionality (i.e., the virtual conference room has its own extension, and participants can dial in as they like), password protection, moderator control features, sideline whisper, etc. Conference bridges are also modular and can be built to fit. The cost of conference bridges has dropped in the last few years, but they are still a substantial investment.

SERVICE-BASED CONFERENCING
Conference calling can also be done through your local provider (SBC, XO, TelePacific, etc.) or a through a third party conference service. The service is typically sold on an as-used basis, charged per minute per user. The quality is excellent due to the superior technology provided by the carrier. Also important, is that a carrier-based solution does not tie up all your line capacity as a premise-based solution does. For instance, if you have 20 lines into your telephone system and you have a 10 person conference, you've used up half of your lines on the conference call. On a carrier-based solution, you'd use only one of your lines for that same call.

WEB-BASED CONFERENCING
Expanding from traditional audio conferencing, web-based conferencing provides not only audio conferencing but on-line presentation, collaborative document editing and product demonstration capabilities.

SUMMARY
Conference calling and web-based conferencing is helping change the way businesses operate, lowering costs and increasing communications. There are price points and feature sets that meet every business need.