Conference phones are used to initiate and conduct conference calls, which enable multiple callers to listen and/or talk on the same call. In a conference call, the host participants typically run the call with a conference phone, while remote participants dial in to a number that connects them to a conference bridge that links the various telephone lines together. Conference calls are frequently used for business meetings and corporate earnings reports, and are also commonly paired with Web conferences for online presentations and sharing documents.
In addition to standard conference phones from manufacturers like Polycom that use the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), IP conference phone products that utilize Internet telephony, or VoIP, are available from companies such as Cisco and Avaya.
