The University of Pittsburgh's Telephone Conferencing Service is a powerful telephone conferencing system designed to meet the diverse needs of the University community. The Telephone Conferencing Service provides on-demand conferencing, which means you can hold a conference call at any time, day or night, with no advance notice required. Because there are no time limits, conference calls can last as long as needed.

To request the Telephone Conferencing Service for your department, contact the Technology Help Desk at 412 624-HELP [4357]. Departments that request the service will be assigned a toll-free number and a unique access code. Anyone in the continental United States can participate in a conference call by simply dialing the department's toll-free number and entering the unique access code. To initiate or participate in a conference call while outside of the U.S., a toll number is available.

International participants can join in the call in one of two ways. The international participant can dial into the call using the TOLL number (1-719-867-7633), in which the participant will pay any international line charges during time spent on the call. However, the department can choose to pay the international line charges by adding the participant to the conference call. To initiate this method, once the conference call is opened, the moderator can dial out to the international participant and add them to the conference call.

Beginning a Conference Call

1. Distribute the unique access code and the appropriate dial-in number(s) to your invited participants. Important: Do not distribute your moderator security passcode (4-digit PIN).
2. Call the toll-free number and enter the passcode followed by the pound (#) sign.
3. As the moderator, you will then be prompted to press the star (*) key.
4. Enter your moderator security passcode (4-digit PIN number) followed by the pound (#) sign.
5. You will be prompted to state your name followed by the pound (#) sign. This will begin the conference. Note: The line will remain silent until another person joins the call.
6. Your participants will join the call by dialing the same toll-free number and entering the passcode that you have provided. The conference call system will use voice prompts to guide participants through the steps that are required to join the call. Note: All participants will remain on hold until you have joined the conference.

Ending a Conference Call

The conference call will terminate after all the participants hang up. However, if one of the participants remains on the line after the moderator hangs up, the call will continue.

To ensure the call has ended and avoid further charges, you can press *93 to disconnect all participants.

Conference Audio Features

The table below summarizes the meeting controls that are available for your audio conference. 

• One-digit controls can be used by all attendees (moderators and participants).
• Two-digit controls can only be used by the moderator.

Troubleshooting Tips for Conference Call Audio Problems

The following are tips to help resolve any audio issues that may arise during a conference call:

• As the moderator, you can monitor the call’s audio degradation as each participant enters the call. If the audio quality declines after a certain participant joins the call, you can ask that participant to press *6 to mute his or her line. The participant can then press *6 again to un-mute the line when he or she would like to speak.
• If more than one party is calling in on an unstable cell phone or a static-filled land line, you have the option as moderator to mute all participant lines by pressing *96 and then un-muting all lines by pressing *97. You can inform your participants that this is being done to help control audio quality and background noise.
• If audio problems continue, you can also press *0 and a Premiere Global Services operator will join the conference in real time to troubleshoot the problem. Once you press *0, you can continue the conference. Participants will not hear your discussion with the operator. The Premiere Global Services operator is able to determine which participants line(s) has background noise and can mute this line(s). The participant will hear the message “your line is being muted” as the operator mutes the line. The participant can press *6 when they want to speak to the group.

Get Help

The Technology Help Desk at 412 624-HELP [4357] is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer your technology-related questions.