If you saw Bob’s Ezine post a few days ago on free conference calling you noticed the broad array of potential applications that are now being employed. The ‘Listen Only’ feature launching soon will continue to expand your range of options in using Rondee
Some customers have asked us to provide them with a special PIN that they can distribute to others who would like to listen-in on an ongoing conference call.
We will shortly launch a new feature designed to do just that. On your invitation page, you will now see a “Listen-only PIN”. This PIN is unique to your conference, and it remains private unless you distribute it to others.
Possible uses include investor conference calls and presentations, semi-public meetings and religious services.
Please keep the ideas coming!
Folks sometimes ask, “I get that Rondee doesn’t charge - but how can you afford not to charge?” There are indeed providers that do not charge for their service because they have placed their bridge lines in remote and rural areas which are theoretically eligible to receive high interchange tariffs from larger telecom companies. One problem for users is when these companies get sued and their service interrupted by the same carriers who resist paying these tariffs (one cause of the busy tone issue you’ve probably seen press about).
We obviously have not gone this route - our bridge line is in the major metropolitan market of San Diego and so our users are not exposed to the risks mentioned above. So our business model is premised on developing a healthy and growing base of customers who find value in the Rondee conference calling service and then providing for those users who want to pay for special services such as toll-free premium access or transcription.
Recently a few of you have posted questions on this topic and I’ve had several users email me about it as well. Rondee does not charge you for use of the service. When you call Rondee, you are calling our 619-276-6333 bridge line in San Diego (619-2-RONDEE). These calls cost you no more and no less than any other regular long distance call you make from your home or office phone. If making a call to a 619 area code normally costs you 2 cents a minute, a Rondee call will cost you 2 cents a minute. To be clear, you will not pay us the 2 cents, you will pay your phone company the normal 2 cents. If you have a flat rate plan with your phone company where you pay $25 to $50 a month for all the calls you want, Rondee calls have zero incremental cost. For a cell phone user, calls to Rondee will be exactly like any other call you make: they will deduct minutes from your plan but there will be no special charges for calling Rondee.
In the past week, we’ve had a lot of users write-in to ask whether they can host Rondee conference calls with 10, 20 or 30 people. In short, the answer is yes. Until you start to get well above 50, Rondee can handle calls that encompass your entire team, company, extended group, etc. Keep in mind, however, that the call quality will start to suffer if too many people are on a call and allowing ambient noise to waft in. Remember that you can always press Pound 1 to mute yourself. In fact, pressing pound will remind you of all the options available such as mute/unmute/ increase or decrease volume, etc.
Some users had reported problems with subscribing to their Rondee calendar using a Macintosh.
We have now modified the vCal files generated by Rondee to work properly on iCal. We have also tested the new code against Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook.
If any users have experiences — positive or negative — with other calendaring applications, please let us know so we can keep the website updated.
Rondee aims to be the best free conference calling service in the country. To help us do this, we’ve created a blog which will keep you updated on what’s going on with Rondee. This is also a place for us to keep our users informed about new features and fixes to the system. Having problems with Rondee or have a feature to suggest? Feel free to leave your comments on this blog.