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 is charged at the 5p per minute UK national rate (including VAT).  Each caller pays for their own call.  The only costs for these type of conference calls are for the minutes that each caller uses.

For Web-Scheduled Premium 0800 conference calls the dial-in number will be a free phone number.  The conference Organiser will pay £0.05 per minute for each Participant in the conference.  Since the Participants in the conference will use a free phone 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. 

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 £0.05 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 National Rate 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.

In addition, our Premium 0800 conference offering has a larger maximum conference size (150), versus 100 for the Standard conference.  We now offer Conference Recording, Computer Download and Transcription services with our Premium 0800 service (learn more).  Other benefits will be added shortly.  For further information please refer to our Services chart for a detailed comparison of our 3 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.  

Web-scheduled conferences 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.   Reservationless conferences allow you to call any time you wish, and you can choose to call any one of our conference bridges you wish (List of dial-in numbers), but there is no guarantee that there will be sufficient space for your conference on any given conference server at any given time.   You may receive a busy signal with Reservationless conferences although we work very hard to provide adequate capacity for everyone.  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.  

Currently, Web-Scheduled Standard conference calls can include up to 100 participants, Web-Scheduled Premium 0800 conference calls can have up to 150 participants, and Reservationless Standard conferences can include up to 50 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 Standard services. We do, however, offer Freephone customer support for our Web-Scheduled Premium 0800 service. The Freephone customer support number, along with a support authorisation number required when calling customer support, is displayed on the confirmation page and e-mail once a Web-Scheduled Premium 0800 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 tone *6 (see Hotkeys).  Then, slowly, one at a time, each participant should un-mute him or herself (again using 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 '*6' to toggle muting on and off.  In addition, the conference Organiser can mute the entire conference by pressing tone '*7'.  (see Hotkeys) 

Yes, with our Web-Scheduled Premium 0800 service 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.  

We do not offer Conference Recording with our Web-Scheduled Standard service.  You must conduct a Web-Scheduled Premium 0800 conference to have your conference recorded.  

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 participants' 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 Premium 0800 conferences which utilise a free phone dial-in number.  Please click here for more information.  We do not support the use of customer-supplied Freephone numbers. 

No, we make do not provide local numbers for conference calls.  

If you are more concerned about simplicity than flexibility and security, we have another service that might be better for your needs.  It's an instant, "no frills", Reservationless conference service that has no web association.  Try calling one the numbers listed here and listen to the instructions or click here for more information.

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 Kingdom when you call.  

Our Premium service provides Freephone numbers that can be reached only from within the UK.  If you use our Web-Scheduled Premium 0800 service we provide an alternate dial-in telephone number for use by callers who are outside the UK.

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.   The longer your Participant Access Code, the more secure your call will be.  Also, there is a short tone heard on the conference call whenever anyone exits or enters the conference.  Additionally, the conference organiser can press the hash button,or "#" to hear how many other parties are on the call.  In addition, the conference Organiser 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.