With unlimited LD included in cell phone contracts and home VoIP service, and IPT at the business office, ~75% of the toll free minutes associated with audio conferencing can be eliminated. If a business pays 3 cents a minute for an 800 audio conferencing service, it maybe able to get the equivalent service without the toll free, for 1.5 cents a minute.*
If a business has an at-home employee who spends half their time on conference calls, having them on an unlimited long distance VoIP solution would save $50/month.** For employees at the office, if a business has outsourced its conferencing bridge to a 3rd party, it has two options:
--Run VoIP internally and put in a network connection to the 3rd party*** --Use LD trunks with an "on-to-on" plan to send the call to the 3rd party vs. local trunks for toll free.
Yes, a business needs to keep an 800 number for audio conferencing for its partners, customers, and employees who are offsite with less than 40/hrs month of usage, but its usage should be the exception, not the rule.
** Assume employee spends half their time (84 hours a month times 60 minutes/hour times 1.5 cents/minutes = $75) on a conference call and that an internal or external VoIP with unlimited LD costs $25/month.
*** Rule of thumb is that voice sent over a corporate WAN costs about 0.5 cent/minute.
