Group Calling — That’s What We Meant

Duh. It’s one of those moments when you realize your shirt tail is hanging out at an event where that is not what you want. It wasn’t a serious fashion faux pas, but we have been talking of PontiVoce setting up conference calls. PontiVoce is far handier because it does not require others to dial in, you simply call them all at once. What were we thinking? That is a group call, not the way we tend to consider conference calling which can be somewhat awkward process. Mostly the fact that conference calling even has a process is what we eliminate. Just call.

This became too obvious when I was looking at network versions from new comers offering group calling. (Foonz & Lypp) That was my wake-up to include group calling as one of the PontiVoce functions. My bad on that one. While these options cost much more for many uses there is not much difference. We offer a straightforward personal empowerment solution. Today it is still just $5.95 and it is yours. We could pretend that we needed to charge you each month and you would think it was a bargain, but we do like to feel good when we look in the mirror.

So now you can make group calls, using someone else’s conferencing bridge configured to make group calls– and pay them for the privilege, or just do it yourself. Because we built on Skype we stuck ourselves with the conference calling name, since it is built using what Skype logically calls conference calling. When we got through with it it was group calling. You could even say it converts your PC into conferencing bridge and telephone gateway, but that is more than users need to think about.

Nothing else is PontiVoce, so we are challenged to describe it. (It crudely translates to voice bridge.) It is a very flexible platform for accessing your Skype PC from a phone or from a remote Skype client by whoever is authorized to do so. You can call from your mobile to use Skype for whatever you could do from your desk. Call your Skype contacts, any phone and call any group of them, hence the nomenclature issue. Make conference calls– oops, group calls from your mobile otherwise not practical. Make low-cost or free calls anywhere to Skype contacts. Because services can be at a flat rate the opportunity for savings is great. Enabling others to share your account can be a boon depending on the circumstances of your family or friends. We do hope that military families and international families where there is a need can take advantage of this capability.

Don’t mind that we call it conference calling. We have been set straight. Group calling it is. My street cred as a phone geek has been damaged, but I still know more phone tricks than you. Next, a look at Grand Central.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Product, Skype. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Group Calling — That’s What We Meant

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