Frequently Asked Questions
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This is advertised as a "free" service. Are there any up-front or hidden costs?
There are no up-front or hidden costs. ECN makes this service available to everyone for free. There are no contracts, not subscription fees and no monthly costs to use this service.
If the service is free, who pays for the call?
To use the service you need to dial into the service using a telephone. So your service provider (Telkom, MTN, Vodacom, etc) will bill you for your call, based on their call rates, just like they do for any other call you make. ECN subscribers will be billed R0.17/minute, charged per second.
Is there any infrastructure or software I need to purchase and install to use this service?
ECN hosts this service on its own national network infrastructure, so all you need is telephone. Once again you save, because there are no installation costs, infrastructure costs or on-going maintenance costs.
Can I just dial-in and use this service or do I need to register first and book a time slot?
Yes, you can just dial-in and use this service at any time. If you are not in possession of a PIN, you can follow the IVR prompts regarding a General Meeting, which is our quick and easy-to-use teleconferencing service. The PIN that is generated must shared and used by all participants.
I'd like to have more control of my teleconferences, do you offer such a service?
ECN offers Moderated Meeting as a service which gives moderators the ability to lock/un-lock the conference, do a head count, do a roll call, mute/un-mute a user and kick a user from the conference. To become a moderator you need to register on-line on our website.
Is there a limit to the number people that can join a conference call?
There is no limit to the number of participants that can join a conference call.
Is there a limit to the duration of a conference call?
There is no limit to the duration of a conference call.
Are conference calls recorded?
Only Moderated Meeting conference calls are recorded and these are made available for download to the moderator on a secure portal. Recordings are available to the moderator 24 hours after the call and for a period of 5 business days only, these recordings are then automatically deleted from our system. Please refer to the terms and conditions on our website.
How do I know who is on my conference call?
All participants need to record their name prior to entering the conference. As participants enter or leave the conference, an announcement is made to that effect i.e. "James has joined the conference" or "Jane has left the conference".
How many times can I use my PIN?
There is no limit to the number of times you can use your PIN. Your PIN will automatically expire 6 months after last use. If you need a PIN after that just dial-in or go to the website and generate a new PIN.
Is my PIN unique to me?
All PINs are randomly generated and there are no duplicates. Obviously the only people who are aware of your PIN are the participants that you share your PIN with.
How secure is my Moderator PIN
Your moderator PIN is randomly generated and should only be used by you in conjunction with its accompanying participant PIN. The participant PIN, or simply the PIN, must be shared and used by all participants. The moderator PIN should never communicated to anyone else and is as secure as you keep it.
I have lost my PIN, what do I do?
You can simply dial-in again and generate a new PIN for a General Meeting. If you have registered as a moderator you can login to the portal and generate a new PIN and Moderator PIN combination.
I am a moderator and have lost my email with the keystroke controls, what do I do?
The keystrokes are as follows:
- Head count - Press 1
- Roll call - Press 2
- Lock/Un-lock - Press 3
- Mute/Un-mute - Press 4<u>#
- Kick - Press 5<u>#
Where the user number <u> can be obtained from a roll call.
I am a moderator and have lost my email with my password, what do I do?
Go to the portal login screen on our website and click "Forgotten password?" and follow the instructions. A new password will be emailed to you.
Why, when I use the mute key on my phone to just "listen in", does my call drop after a while?
Pressing the mute key on your phone while on a conference call means that we don't receive "voice" signal from you, which appears to our system to be a call that has hung-up but not disconnected. There is a safety measure in place to ensure that when a user hangs-up, and our system possibly misses that hang-up, that the call is dropped automatically so that the user is not billed for an open-end call. Our voice team is currently working on a solution.
Is this service only available locally or can people dial-in from international destinations
This service is available locally and internationally. Local participants must dial-in to our service using our 086 000 9525 number. International users must dial-in using +27 11 217 2000.
