The cost of free video conferencing

When one looks at the video conferencing market it is quite easy to get lost in the dozens of solutions available, most of them having different requirements and offering different services at different costs.

Most of the time one tends to go with a solution that one is already familiar with or a solution that one has often heard talking about. In the video conferencing market these are MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and Skype.

These are popular because they are inexpensive, most being free, and are used frequently by small and medium businesses as the video conferencing system of their choice. Skype alone has more than 663 million users and 37% of them are estimated to be businesses.

But what many businesses don’t seem to know is that, while these solutions are fine if one wishes to talk to a friend, they are not the solutions businesses need and deserve.

While they apparently provide a service at no cost whatsoever, there are hidden costs that businesses usually discover at their own expense. These costs often hurt companies in other ways than in their wallet and they should be aware of them.

The low quality of such video conferencing calls using such solutions often translates in unreliable connectivity, which often leads to frustration and interrupted conversations. When not getting interrupted, such calls usually suffer from delays and frequent interruptions.

The video quality delivered by these solutions is also quite weak. If one wishes to use video conferencing in his or hers daily business operations instead of audio conferencing then video is supposed to play a very important role. If video hasn’t quality then why use video conferencing at all?

Businesses using such video conferencing products should look for better solutions in the market. They often fail to really provide what they’re suppose to and result in lost clients and partners, lost time and affect the credibility of the company using them.

The purpose of video conferencing is to enhance communications between distant parties. If the video conference solution fails to fill this role then it shouldn’t be used.

There are many other solutions available in the market today and some of them quite inexpensive while also providing the quality businesses need and deserve. Among them is RHUB’s 6-in-1 TurboMeeting appliance, which delivers high quality video, web and audio conferencing services as well as desktop remote support solutions.

Companies should know that nothing is free and that everything has its costs.