Can a person from outside North America join a teleconference?

The short answer is Yes! Numerous options come to mind. You can connect via a Local number or an International Toll Free number or you can be connected by having someone Dial Out to you.

INTERNATIONAL TOLL FREE NUMBER

The most common way to connect into a teleconference call from outside North America is to dial an International Toll Free number (ITF). For the person using the ITF from Germany, for example, the call is free for him, but the charges for using the Germany ITF will be billed to the account hosting the teleconference call. We offer ITFs for most of the countries around the world. Simply contact Pragmatic via chat, phone or email and we'll be happy to explain which ITFs are available to you! We also have a handy article dedicated to ITFs which you may want to read.

INTERNATIONAL LOCAL NUMBER

If we have the number available, you could connect into a teleconference call from outside North America via an International Local Number. These numbers are unique because they are local numbers for the international city you are calling from. For example, we have international local numbers for Paris, Sydney, Prague, Tokyo, etc. There is no charge for the person making this call from that city but there is of course a charge for that service reflected on the invoice of the moderator hosting the call. Please refer to this handy article for more information about these international local numbers.

LOCAL NUMBER

When we provision you as a user for our teleconferencing service, you are provided with a Toll Free and a Toll number. The Toll number is also referred to as a Local number and for all intents and purposes, it is based in Canada (for billing and provisioning purposes). This Local number allows you to connect to an audio conference call from outside North America. Please note the Toll Free number (ex: 1.888 or 1.866) cannot be used from outside North America.

An example of a Local number is 416.555.1234. When you are outside North America, the Local number can be access from anywhere in the world but long distance charges will apply. When you dial this Local number from France, for example, the individual calling from France will be paying the long distance rate for dialing into Canada.

With that being said, we've established you can dial the Local number from anywhere in the world but you will pay long distance charges. Ok. But are there any other options? Yes there are.

MODERATOR DIAL OUT

The moderator of the conference call (also referred to as the Leader or the Chairperson) can initiate the Moderator Dial Out feature as long as his or her account is provisioned to do so. After having connected to the conference call, the Moderator would use the *1 star touch command to initiate the dial-out sequence. All of the helpful information you need can be referred to in this article.

OPERATOR ASSISTANCE

Sometimes it just makes sense to have an Operator help you! Anyone on the conference call can request operator assistance and doing so obviously means you have to be connected into the conference call in order to do so. If you are going to have a large number of participants you need connected by the operator, we do not recommend this service because of the time required for the operator to connect your participants. Large dial-outs are always better-managed via the Scheduled Dial-Out Service.

That said, if you wish to have the operator connect one or a few participants to your call, you can press *0 and the operator will assist you privately. Or you can press 00 and the operator will provide assistance into the entire conference call.

SCHEDULED DIAL OUT SERVICE

This option involves providing us with a simple reservation form outlining the details of your call and 24 hours' notice is more than enough. The reservation form is attached. Customers prefer to use this option when they have a large number of participants they wish to have connected to the call on their behalf. Other customers prefer this option when they wish to have a white glove experience with their call. The pricing for this scheduled operator dial-out service is based on three components. (1) the per minute rate of your reservationless audio service (2) any long distance charges that apply for the countries being called (3) an operator premium based on the number of participants you wish to have called. This premium is a flat-rate of:

1 to 5 participants being dialled: $15.00
6 to 10 participants being dialled: $25.00
More than 10 participants being dialled: $25 + $2.50 for each additional participant. For example, if you wanted us to dial 12 participants, the premium would be $30 (($25 + 2 x $2.50))