FreeConferenceCall claims to be the "world’s largest free conference provider". Ok, 'largest' may or may not be "hyperbole", but I thought for sure they were joking when they said they were "free", so I checked out their website and they are indeed 'free'. In fact, they leverage our good ole' pal, VoIP. Further, their free conferencing system supports any type of calling device: desktop softphone, traditional phone, broadband phone cellular phone, etc.
Tomorrow, FreeConferenceCall.com, GizmoProject (a Skype competitor) and Vapps will be announcing what they claim to be the industry’s first deployment where general consumers will have the ability to make unlimited free conference calls to anywhere in the world using VoIP or traditional calling devices. The backbone behind the deployment is Vapps CB1000 conferencing platform. CB1000 is a SIP-enabled, carrier-grade conferencing platform.
According to FreeConferenceCall.com, "Free reservationless conferencing is our marquee service and our most popular." I asked FreeConference Call how they can keep their service free and they responded, "FreeConferenceCall can keep their primary conferencing service free because they charge for other services such as: Toll-free reservationless, Voice Center Messaging and Operator assistance." They added, "What’s cool about this announcement is that by using a Hybrid IP/TDM bridge (from Vapps) FreeConferenceCall can enhance service offerings by allowing the user to download a softphone client (from Gizmo Project) and connect to any type of conference call (IP or TDM)."
FreeConferenceCall.com and Gizmo Project Leverage Vapps CB1000 Platform for Free Unrestricted Conferencing Calling
New Service Allows Consumers and Business Users to Join or Host IP and PSTN Based Conference Calls via Softphone Client, Handset or Cellular phone at No Cost
Vapps, a leading global provider of audio conferencing systems for IP and TDM networks, announced today that the FreeConferenceCall.com and Gizmo Project have deployed the CB1000 voice conferencing platform to power an innovative first-to-market conferencing service. The service hosted by FreeConferenceCall.com, gives consumer and business users the unprecedented choice of employing Gizmo Project’s IP softphone, a traditional handset, or cellular phone for conducting or joining IP and PSTN native conferences at absolutely no cost and from anywhere around the world.
Based on the modular SIPphone VoIP architecture and founded on the principal that next-generation voice communications should be free to all; the Gizmo Project softphone client is a desktop interface designed to place crystal clear, high quality voice calls over the unregulated Internet infrastructure with the ease of instant messaging.
“Softphone based conferencing is a compelling way for search engines, service providers or broadband phone companies to attract new customers by bridging IP communications and the PSTN,” said Ben Lilienthal, CEO and co-founder of Vapps. “This first to market service will undoubtedly pave the way for a new assortment of hybrid service providers.”
The backbone behind the deployment is the CB1000 conferencing platform. CB1000 is a SIP-enabled, carrier-grade conferencing platform that is VoIP native and delivers reliable, seamless reservation-less conference calls on both legacy and IP-based telecom systems. Features include: web-based call control, standard and advanced call management (lists, mute, volume control, conference locking and recording), operator support and call record details among others. The product supports up to 18,000 total conference participants in multiple simultaneous conferences, with the ability to easily scale on a card-by-card basis.
“The Vapps CB1000 is a proven fault tolerant architecture for combining the best attributes of PSTN and IP based telephony, a characteristic crucial for this development”, stated David Erickson, president of FreeConferenceCall.com. “Furthermore, it allows us to maintain extremely low operational costs while offering customers a comprehensive suite of on-demand calling features.”
About Vapps:
Vapps develops, licenses and supports enhanced services products for converged network providers. The company’s flagship product, the CB1000 conference bridge, is a scalable, fault-tolerant conference calling platform for converged networks being used by service providers like BBTelsys and Excel Conferencing to reliably and continuously provision reservationless conference calling. For more information, visit www.vapps.com
or call 201-420-1155.
About FreeConferenceCall.com
Founded in 2001, Free Conferencing Corporation is the trail-blazer in reservationless, free conference call services, based out of Long Beach, CA. The company specializes in quality reservationless audio teleconferencing, data conferencing and voicemail services with clients world-wide. Learn more at www.freeconferencecall.com.
About Gizmo Project
Gizmo Project is a VoIP startup from Michael Robertson, the iconic industry pioneer behind MP3.com, Linspire, and MP3tunes.com. The company was founded in April 2003 to build a VoIP platform and directory (we call it a dialtone) on which any hardware or software developer could offer free VoIP service. For more information, visit www.gizmoproject.com
