Conferencing is Rapidly Migrating From the Business to the Consumer Market

By Mike Burns, A+ Conferencing

When I first started working for the telephone company in the seventies, the only way you could have a conference call was through the phone company and you had to schedule it in advance and pay around $3.50 per minute. During the late eighties and nineties, conference bridging technology developed to where you could hold reservationless conference calls without an operator and the rate dropped to around 50 cents per minute. Businesses were slow to adopt conferencing, but once they did, their usage increased dramatically. Newer technologies such as web conferencing, using the Internet, have added even more usage and lead to a reduction in pricing. Now that desktop video conferencing technology has emerged and has become economical, conferencing has finally started to migrate to the consumer market.

Consumer markets have been traditionally tough to penetrate in the conferencing arena. Multiple efforts have been tried and most have been ineffective. Teen chat lines, family lines, school lines and patient lines have all been introduced, but very few have taken off to produce any significant amount of usage.

One of the problems has been that consumers have not seen the need for such a product. Another problem is that conferencing typically has been sold on a "paid by the minute" product and consumers have been more budget minded and worried about families running up large conferencing bills.

With the advent of desktop video conferencing, consumers can now use their webcams and the Internet to hold meetings right over their laptops or desktop computers. With speakers and headphones, the voice can be carried over the Internet, as well. With the technology based over the Internet, pricing has dramatically fallen and new flat rate, unlimited usage pricing models have developed. Now you can hold as many family video conferences with family members around the world as you want for less than $99. per month.

Conferencing truly has come a long way since the seventies. Beginning with the business markets, conferencing is now starting to gain a foothold on the consumer markets. The use of the Internet, webcams and personal computers will continue to drive conferencing to every corner of the earth.

Mike Burns has been in the conferencing industry since 1971, having originally worked for Southwestern Bell and AT&T. In 1989, Mr. Burns founded Conference Pros International and in 2000, Mr Burns founded A+ Conferencing, a conferencing provider that sells exclusively through master agents and resellers. Mr Burns speaks and writes about the conferencing industry frequently. 888-239-3969. http://www.aplusconferencing.com