Editing Conference call (section)

=== Free ===

Free conferencing is different from traditional conference calling in that it has no organizer fees, no human operator, and allows for multiple people to connect at no cost other than that of any other phone call (local or toll). Companies that provide free conference call services are usually compensated through a revenue-sharing arrangement with the local phone company, sharing the [[termination rates|termination charge]] for incoming calls to a phone carrier.

In the case of free conference calling, the conferencing company strikes an agreement with the local phone company that hosts the conferencing bridge (equipment connecting lines) to receive a share of the terminating access charge received for connecting the call. At large carriers such as AT&T and Verizon, they keep these access charges for their own conferencing services in addition to charging the customer for the conference service. With free conference calling, as mentioned above, there are no organizer fees so these services do not double-dip: the consumer pays for a regular call with the same three components&nbsp;– origination, transport, and termination&nbsp;– of any call. In other words, the call costs the same as any other call under the customer's calling plan, but the conferencing is included for free to the host and participants of the conference call.

A distinct difference between sound quality of paid and free conference calls has been noted by customers who have claimed to hear background noises when using the free conferencing services,{{when|date=October 2019}} which rarely happens on paid conference calling services. <ref name=CIO/>