In the course of the last two decades, the conference calling landscape has changed considerably. It used to be true that only larger corporations had access to multi participant phone teleconferencing. Such systems were typically rather costly and often featured live operator participation on each call.

Monopolist telecom companies priced teleconferencing services at high rates (e.g twenty five cents plus per minute per user) and most companies were willing to pay such charges to guarantee reliable and quality services. Now in recent years the market has seen a high degree of competitive forces. A variety of factors have been responsible including telecom deregulation, significant improvements in web technology and demand for better offerings.

The competitive landscape now includes dozens of providers in addition to the incumbent telcos. Organizations and individuals that want to use conference calling now have a far wider menu of choices. Within that spectrum of choices are free conference calling offerings such as Rondee that meld free conference calling with web based scheduling and other related features. These services do not charge users because they use a toll number as opposed to a traditional toll-free dial-in. Therefore, such free conference call services are not free in the same sense that air is free. They do require minutes of telephone usage.

However, such services are increasingly being perceived by users as basically free because many telephone plans now offer flat rate "all you can dial" and typically cell phone plans no longer have added charges for long distance phone calls. As a result of these trends, conference calling has become available to a far wider market of users as the following use-cases show.

Non profits have become strong users of conference calling services. The ever escalating cost of travel combined with constrained finances of most non-profits, makes conferencing a good strategy for reducing expense and increasing productivity. Typically, non-profits rely on formal and informal methods of networking. When these networks extend beyond geographical boundaries, conferencing becomes the only practical method of quality communication. A number of non-profits including those that address literacy, poverty, and environmental issues, have effectively utilized conference calling to increase participation and coordinate plans.

Labor unions have effectively used traditional conferencing systems and, increasingly, free conference calling services to enable disparately located members to discuss strategies and plan meetings. Unions have traditionally been cost conscious because their budgets are limited to the extent of member contributions. So, as is typical of non-profits, unions constantly search for methods of making every dollar stretch further. In times of labor strikes or other situations of urgency, conferencing becomes a viable method of allowing the national leadership to communicate with chapter leaders.

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