Powwownow is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 company and is the leading free provider teleconferencing provider in the UK. The company was founded by Andrew Pearce and Paul Lees and now operates in 15 countries worldwide including the USA, Canada, South Africa and Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

. Annual turnover is 7 million Pound Sterling

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

 (2010).

History

The company was founded in 2004 by Andrew Pearce and Paul Lees offering low-cost conference calling facilities with the ethos of no booking, no billing and no fuss. No conference room needs to be booked and the customer never receives a bill, they only pay for the cost of their own phone call which is added to their standard telecoms bill.

Powwownow Becomes a Telco

In February 2009 Powwownow became a Telco in their own right due to Ofcom's

Ofcom

Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

 decision to remove the rebate payable to the telecoms suppliers from the 0870 numbers.

Powwownow's original business model involved using the 0870 number range and receiving a rebate for every minute made on their conference lines.

With the loss of the 0870 numbers Powwownow faced losing 90% of their revenue. By becoming a telco it meant Powwownow would receive the entire rebate available on the 0844 numbers and maintain their current revenue whilst keeping the service free.

Services

Powwownow offers three main services, differentiated by their level of access to conference calling features and benefits.

• Open Access is the most basic of the three services. Users simply generate a PIN on the website then share the PIN, dial-in number and the time of the call with their call participants. At the designated time everyone dials in, enters the pin and starts talking.
• Enhanced Access works the same way as Open Access however offers users more features and benefits. Main features include international local access dial-in numbers, web conferencing facilities, call recording and a tool to schedule your conference calls.
• Premium Access is a contract-based alternative for corporate customers who require a customised service with additional features. Features include a choice of shared cost, freephone and geographic dial-in numbers, company branding, web conferencing, real-time reporting on calls, unlimited PINs, a scheduler tool, secure call recording and international access from over 100 countries.

Acquisition of Yuuguu

In July 2010, Powwownow announced it had acquired a majority share in Liverpool-based web conferencing and collaboration company Yuuguu

Yuuguu

Yuuguu is a desktop sharing and web conferencing application and the software company behind it, Yuuguu Ltd., was founded by Anish Kapoor and Philip Hemsted...

. Powwownow paid an undisclosed fee for a 70% share.

External links

• Official website
• http://www.andrewjpearce.com/