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Is teleconferencing past its prime?

John Lovell

With multiple providers suspending service in 2022, teleconferencing may seem like a technology whose heyday is past. Yet enterprise organizations, government agencies and NGOs have scrambled to replace exiting vendors with reliable, high-quality, global teleconferencing solutions.

Why? Because with certain situations or audiences, teleconferencing is still the most efficient, reliable, flexible, or inclusive communication method.  Here are two quick examples.

  1. Access is your top priority

Your audience is global or remote and internet access or bandwidth are inconsistent. Employees are in a retail or healthcare setting where a mobile phone provides a more practical connection than a computer or tablet. A disaster occurs and infrastructure is impacted. Your audience resides in a government or corporate environment where downloads and access are restricted. You are legally required to make available and publish dial-in number access for the public. In these scenarios, teleconferencing provides scalable, globally available, low-bandwidth access.

  1. You need the flexibility to place participants “on hold”

Video and web conferencing is, rightly, built for simplicity. While that suits most use cases, it may not allow a host to place specific participants “on hold” from the primary conversation.

Public participation, for example, is typically welcome during specific segments of government meetings while at other times the government needs to caucus privately. Arguably, the public could be sent to a webinar ‘breakout session,’ but those are designed for interaction and engagement. When the government wants to create a controlled environment – hold music, for example – teleconferencing better suits the requirement.

There are many use cases and a host of other reasons. Your industry has a history of using teleconferencing. Your audience is more familiar or comfortable with teleconferencing. You don’t have – or have time to prepare – strong visual content. You’re uncomfortable on video.

Bottom line? Teleconferencing still provides critical connection.

Whether teleconferencing is essential infrastructure for an organization’s internal or external communications or simply an occasional use platform, enterprise and government require a committed conferencing partner with scalable, reliable infrastructure, robust features, and professional operator services.