How to use Skype to make cost-effective conference calls
One major benefit in using Skype is that it is a super-easy, and cost-effective solution for conference calling. We are going to list the ways we know to make conference calls using Skype.
Solution 1 Make the call in Skype.
Click on the “Conference” icon on the Skype program toolbar, add the contacts to the conference participants window, and you can start the conference call after all parties have picked up the phone. While Skype limits the conference participants to 5, we started to notice a decrease of voice quality after we conference 4 people into one call.
Solution 2 Make the call in Skype, but use a specialized conference call phone, such as the Polycom phone to boost the voice quality.
Use a Skype Telbox to bring out the Skype calls from the PC. Connect the Polycom phone directly to the Telbox “Tel” port. Then you can enjoy the high voice quality produced by the Polycom conference call phone. This solution allows you to have up to 5 Skype participants and however many people you can cram around the conference phone and still be understood.
Solution 3 Conference Skype calls to a landline.
Use a Skype Telbox to bring out the Skype calls from PC. Connect a multi-line phone to the Skype Telbox as you would a regular phone. Use the multi-line phone to conference Skype calls with land-line calls. The number limit for the participants is: 5 Skype participants + X (Multi-line number on the phone – 1. For example, 3 landline participants for a 4-line phone).
Solution 4 Use freeconferencecall.com as the host.
Freeconferencecall.com offers free services to host your conference call, as long as all the participants pay for the local or long distance charges to call into their server. Just request a conference call service from freeconferencecall.com, and ask all participants to use the relatively cheap SkypeOut service to call in. You have a cost-effective solution to conference calling. In addition, the maximum callers that can participate in one conference call in this solution is 96 people!
In addition, the people on the other end of the Skype connection can use a variety of the above solutions to help expand the calling network at the same time, too.