In order for conference participants to reach our service, each one must call a telephone number. For Reservationless Standard and Web-Scheduled Standard conferences this number may be local or long distance, depending on their location. The only costs for these type of conference calls 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 Web-Scheduled Premium 800 conference calls the dial-in number will be a toll-free number.  The conference Organizer will pay $0.10 per minute for each Participant in the conference.  Since the Participants in the conference will use a toll-free number they will not incur any charges for use of our service.

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

Reservationless Standard and Web-Scheduled Standard conferences:

No. There are absolutely no surcharges. For Reservationless Standard Web-Scheduled Standard and Web-Scheduled Web-Scheduled Standard conferences, nothing extra will appear on your bill other than the call itself, billed at your normal long long-distance rate.

Web-Scheduled Premium 800 conferences:

Yes, for Web-Scheduled Premium 800 conference calls, nothing will appear on your phone bill whatsoever. Instead, we will bill your credit card for the total amount of time each participant is present in the conference call, at the rate of $0.10 per minute per caller, plus the Federal Universal Service Fund Fee.

Beginning October 1, 2008, Global Conference Partners®, will begin assessing the Federal Universal Service Fund Fee on all paid telecommunication services*, which is designed to recover Global Conference Partners' contribution to the Federal Universal Service Fund.

Global Conference Partners calculates the Federal Service Fund Fee as a percentage of all per–minute premium services. The percentage that Global Conference Partners applies is the same as the FCC's universal service contribution factor. The current contribution factor can be found at: www.fcc.gov/omd/contribution-factor.html

This means that you will see an additional charge as a line item on your conference call receipt.

In the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act), Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and states, to take the steps necessary to establish support mechanisms to ensure the delivery of affordable telecommunications service to all Americans, including low–income consumers, eligible schools and libraries, and rural health care providers. To learn more please visit: www.universalservice.org/about/universal-service

Many of our users want to host conference calls for their clients or guests and don't want their participants to have to pay long distance charges to access the conference.  Also, it may be more convenient to put the cost of the conference call onto a single credit card bill rather than paying via separate long distance bills for each caller.  Many people have found our low per minute rate to be even cheaper than the rates they would pay for regular long distance.

We now offer Conference Recording, Computer Download and Transcription services with our Premium800 services (learn more).  Other benefits will be added shortly.  For further information please refer to our Services chart for a detailed comparison of our three conference products.  

Premium conferences and features are charged to the credit card on file at the time the reservation was booked. If you need a previously scheduled conference charged to a different credit card, you'll have to cancel then re-book that conference.

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.  

FreeConference.com assigns all Dial-in Numbers in order to balance capacity on our conference bridges

Web-scheduled conferences have a guaranteed time slot on our conference bridge for the number of participants, date, and time that you select.  You reserve this time slot in advance using this Web site and call the dial-in telephone number assigned by the conference scheduler (More information).

Reservationless conferences allow you to call any time you wish, without scheduling your conference through the FreeConference.com website. Using your own planning tools, you can create a conference on-demand. When you register, you will receive a dedicated Dial-in Number and Access Code. Just let your participants know the date, time, Dial-in Number and Access Code.   You will be prompted to enter your subscriber pin when using our Reservationless Premium 800.  You can use your reservationless Dial-in number and unique Access Code again and again (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 have up to 150 participants.  For further information, please see our Services comparison chart. 

If you have a reservation for a Web-Scheduled conference 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.

Although all functions can be performed from one account, there is no limit on the number of accounts you may open.

There is no specific limit on how many conferences you can schedule or when they can occur.  Each conference is associated with a phone number to call and a unique Participant Access Code.  Our software makes sure each conference is unique and private.  Thus, you cannot have two or more conferences taking place simultaneously.

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.

We do not offer telephone support for non-emergency problems of users of our free services. We do, however, offer toll-free customer support for our Web-Scheduled Premium 800 service. 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 Web-Scheduled Premium 800 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. 

Web-scheduled 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.  Of course, Reservationless conference calls can start at any time and can last up to three hours.  See our Services page for a comparison between our different services.

Web-Scheduled conference calls can be booked with as little as five minutes advance notice.

Sorry, but we are currently not in the video conferencing business.  We only do telephone audio conferencing over normal telephone lines (PSTN).

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 server at a pre-arranged time.  The other participants in your conference will also dial the same telephone number and meet you there.  

The first caller to arrive for a conference hears music-on-hold until the second party enters the conference.

Yes.  While in a conference, callers can touch-tone '*6' to toggle muting on and off.  In addition, the conference Organizer can mute the entire conference by pressing touch-tone '*7'.  (see Hotkeys) 

Yes, we offer Conference Recording, Computer Download and Telephone Playback of your conference call. (learn more).  This feature is FREE with all Premium 800 calls and only $9 per month as a FreeConference Select service with all Web-Scheduled Standard calls. 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! Just create a conference for the total number of people you want.  Then, include those members without e-mail by giving them the date and time of the conference, the phone number to dial and the Participant Access Code.  They will be able to join in without the e-mail invitation and RSVP features.

Please verify that the conferees' e-mail addresses were correctly typed.  You may wish to review the entries in your address book.  Our system makes its best attempt to deliver the invitations and will notify you if any of them “bounce” back to us.  

Yes, we offer Web-Scheduled and Reservationless Premium 800 conferences which utilize a toll-free dial-in number.  Please click here for more information.  You will be prompted to enter your subsciber pin when using our Reservationless Premium 800 service.  We do not support the use of customer-supplied toll-free numbers. 

We do not provide customized local numbers for any one person's area code.   Our conference facilities are centrally located to balance long distance services across our full customer base.

We do not specify the location of our servers because they are located all over the continental US.  We also have servers in the United Kingdom for our European customers.  Each conference call can be different and may be allocated to any of our servers, depending on several factors, including conference size, length and overall demand.  Plan for conference calls to be at the domestic long distance rate your carrier charges for interstate calls.  

Yes, our reservationless service assigns you a permanent on-demand conference number when you sign up. You can use this number any time you wish without scheduling your conference through the FreeConference.com website.

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 Web-Scheduled Premium 800 service we provide a long distance dial-in telephone number for use by callers who are outside the USA and Canada. 

Your conference can include people from anywhere in the world. The system will keep track of the different time zones each participant is in so that everyone receives notifications converted to their own local time.  You indicate the time zone for each participant when you add them to your address book or to a conference invitee list.  We will send an e-mail invitation message to each of the participants in your conference call informing them of the conference date and time and providing them with a chance to accept or decline your invitation. 

Yes.  There are several different privacy features.  Each call has a unique Participant Access Code for entry.   Participant Access Codes are uniquely assigned for all services with the option to choose your own for our Web-Scheduled services.   Also, there is a short tone heard on the conference call whenever anyone exits or enters the conference.  Additionally, the conference organizer can press the pound,or "#" touch-tone to hear how many other parties are on the call.  In addition, the conference organizer may lock the conference by pressing "5" on the touchtone keypad to prevent additional persons from entering the conference.  See also Hotkeys.

We strictly DO NOT share or sell your e-mail address or those in your address book with anyone outside our company.  We may, however, send out our own promotional solicitations and service bulletins.  Please read our Privacy Policy  

Please use the "forgot your password" link on our home page or click here.   The system will send you your correct username and password via e-mail.

Yes.  But before sending an e-mail to Customer Support, please browse the help topics links above for a possible answer to your question.  If your question is not addressed in the help section, click here for support.