Control conference calls from your BlackBerry

A mobile service that allows conference calls to be managed from a mobile device made its debut on Wednesday at The Wireless Event in London.

Ring2's Conference Controller for Blackberry lets users monitor and control a conference call from the handheld. Participants can be invited from the Blackberry's address book, muted if they are in a noisy location, and expelled if they are uninvited intruders.

Users can record calls as an MP3 file and send billing codes to participants.

The product is initially only available for the BlackBerry, although Ring2's Steve Flavell told ZDNet UK that Windows Mobile and Palm versions will be out later this year. A Symbian Series 60 version may appear in 2007.

Flavell described Ring2's offering as a "premium business service", at 12p per caller per minute. An 0800 number is used to access the service. The only other fixed charge is a £10 setup fee, although the service can be customised to reflect the subscribing organisation's brand, at an extra cost.