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Is Microsoft Teams Phone Call Free?

Everything You Need To Know About Microsoft Teams Phone

Is Microsoft Teams Phone Call Free

Microsoft Teams Calling Plans Explained

Many users are acquainted with Microsoft Teams over the past few years, using the platform to improve productivity and work with colleagues in the age of hybrid or remote working. The video conferencing software has earned a massive popularity, with users being able to use screen sharing chat, chat functions and shared video files and more.

However, while Microsoft Teams has become pretty well-known, less people are aware of its Microsoft Teams Phone add-on. It allows users for making and receiving calls right within Microsoft Teams. In essence, it combines Teams with traditional VoIP features, meaning that users can remain connected on their laptop, tablet or mobile device. It also functions as a desk phone. This guide will provide you with all the information you must be aware of Microsoft Teams Phone, and is Microsoft Teams phone call free?

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Microsoft Teams Phone Call

Is Microsoft Teams Phone Call Free?

Is Micorsoft Teams phone call free? In the Microsoft network phone calls for Microsoft Teams users are free. However, businesses need to buy a Calling Plan if it wants its clients to be capable of making regular phone calls, and they aren’t already registered by a service provider or already have an existing PSTN Operator subscription.

What is Microsoft Teams Phone System?

“Phone System” by Microsoft is a technology that allows businesses to allow calling control as well as call control and PBX (Private Branch Exchange) capabilities within Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 cloud. The system is compatible with Teams clients as well as certified devices to integrate the telephony feature to Microsoft Teams.

Through the Phone System, calls between employees in your organization are handled internally and have not been connected to PSTN. If you want to make calls outside there are a variety of ways to connect via the PSTN.

Phone System With Services

The Phone System is a great tool to provide services and voicemail like:

Auto attendants
  • Auto attendants can be used to create a menu system for your organization that lets external and internal callers move through the system to locate and place or transfer calls to company users or departments in your organization. See What are Cloud auto attendants?

Call queues
  • Call queue greetings can be used when someone calls in to a phone number for your organization. These greetings include the ability to automatically put the calls on hold and to search for the next available call agent to handle the call. The people on hold can also listen to music while on hold. You can create single or multiple call queues for your organization. See Create a Cloud call queue.

Voicemail

  • Cloud Voicemail is automatically set up and provisioned for all Teams users. See Set up Cloud Voicemail.

Microsoft Teams Phone Pricing and Plans

The first thing to be aware of regarding Microsoft Teams Phone is that it requires you to be already a Microsoft Teams customer to use it. There’s no standalone version of the app that is independent of the various Microsoft Teams components.

But, the pricing for Teams Phone isn’t in contradiction with other services we’ve examined. The current price is $15 per month for each user in addition to costs associated with every Microsoft 365 plan that includes Teams. Starting at the basic stage, you can buy Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $5.00 per month per user which means that your total cost to access Teams Phone would be $20 per month for each user. Apart from Teams, this level allows each user to access mobile and web-based editions that include Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

This service comes with the Calling Plan that lets you make calls to a number that are on the public switched telephone system (PSTN). The only drawback of Microsoft’s strategy is the number of minutes available, which is set at 3,000 for the month. It’s about 50 hours per month however, minutes are added up to the total number of users. This should provide enough coverage for the most chat-happy customers.

On the other hand of the spectrum, you can get Microsoft 365 E5 licenses for $57 per month per user that include Teams Phone, Windows 11, and the entire range of Microsoft Office products. This tier for businesses offers more ways to connect to PSTN. You can choose to purchase Microsoft’s Calling Plan, or you can create a connection direct to the local operator, or your on-premises phone system.

What Are The Advantages Of Microsoft Teams Phone?

There are numerous advantages, not just over traditional PBX telephone devices, but other VoIP and cloud-based PBX systems.

  1. Support your remote workforce
    Since it’s 100% cloud-based which allows for a broad as well as remote staff is simple. Employees can work anywhere, but also moving between offices is effortless. Modern working practices are increasingly requiring employees to share their time between their home and office spaces and offices, it allows them to stay in touch wherever their work takes them.

  2. Bring together multiple locations
    Multiple offices typically mean several separate phones. With Teams, you can make all your calls, you will be able to join all offices to provide seamless user experience as well as enhanced customer service. It breaks down the barriers of geographical division to connect teams across different locations. Companies that use Teams Phone can easily operate one customer service team with multiple locations, for example, an individual receptionist that answers calls for offices in different locations or a huge group of technicians who provide technical support.

  3. Use any device
    Since Microsoft Teams can truly operate on any device, and from any place, so will Teams Phone. Users can make and receive calls from all iPhone as well as Android device, laptop or even a real handset. For example, a sales representative who uses a headset for their computer to make calls from their desk would remain in contact with Teams. Teams application on an iPhone when they are on the move.

  4. Unify communications channels
    A lot of organizations have already benefited from the advantages that come with Office 365 and Microsoft Teams to facilitate team communication and collaboration. By integrating different channels and services including video calling, chat and document co-authoring, management of files and phone calls together into a unifying setting, the users can be able to have easy access to the individuals and resources they require without having to switch context between platforms and different systems.

  5. Flexible pricing model
    The Microsoft Teams telephony solution allows your monthly expenses to change upwards and downwards depending on the needs of your business in the course of time. The required licenses work in the same way like other Office 365 licenses, meaning that you are able to add and remove licenses at the same time you make changes to employees. 

Phone System Features

Phone System offers a range of tools for Teams to provide you with a central place for making calls. Users can make calls by clicking on a link in the address book. Additionally you can also use the other tools that you would expect from a typical carrier, including music on hold.

Some of the top features include:

  • Auto-attendant – In your admin center, you are able to configure a different auto-attendant to each number. Additionally, you can define the conditions under which an auto-attendant will take on the calls. You can set the greeting message or upload music, or even set up the IVR menu. The service is hosted in the cloud, meaning you will receive automatic patch updates (but could experience interruption if Teams is experiencing an outage)

  • Voicemail transcription – This feature of the Microsoft Teams Phone System comes with voicemail stored on the cloud. This is in addition to your usual recording of audio. Voicemails are converted to a text transcription which is accessible from the Microsoft Exchange mailbox

  • Call escalation – This is where the cloud capabilities of the Phone System are truly effective. If you’re using the service to collaborate, but it’s not part of a contact center setting, calling escalation can let you transform 1-on-1 conversations into a group meeting. It means that you can instantly jump from a phone conversation to an expanded conference that includes video, screen sharing or audio. and without losing an ounce of time.

  • Secure telephony – Secure telephony will be beneficial to people working in the public sector, or working with sensitive information. Calls between Microsoft Teams’ tenants are 100% safe. Therefore, you can have secure, legal phone calls with other companies and partners that use the Microsoft Cloud

  • Analytics dashboard – The most important indicators from The Microsoft 365 Phone System feeds into a complete dashboard in the administrator center. Through this dashboard, administrators can check the state of the telephony infrastructure and conduct basic troubleshooting

  • Number porting – Number porting may appear easy on paper, but it is vital for established companies who want to modernize their phone capabilities. Microsoft 365 Phone System Microsoft 365 Phone System lets users transfer their existing phone numbers to the Microsoft Calling Plan if you would like to change to a different PSTN provider. The advantage of this strategy is that Microsoft handles end-to-end access to PSTN which reduces the cost and maintenance at your expense.

  • Contact center-facing features – Microsoft has included a variety of options that could be beneficial in a contact center. For instance, a person can put off a call in case they are not able to answer a question from a customer and someone else will be able to assist by entering the code for the call park. Furthermore the full delegation feature allows one person to take phone calls on behalf of other people. In addition, simultaneous ringing allows the same call to be received on different devices, which means you can respond to the call using the device of your choice. You can also set up the routing based on location to meet the PSTN regulations in a specific environment.

  • Media bypass – This option offers the benefits of minimizing distortion of media to the PSTN environment. Calls and media are routed directly SBC SBC instead of going through an Microsoft Data Center, significantly improving the quality of calls while decreasing the amount of traffic on the network.

  • Basic telephony – Basic telephony Microsoft provides all the essential needs covered, even if you select cloud-based solutions. There’s a dynamic emergency call in the event that you have to dial 911 using electronic technology. Users can choose to block calls by a busy signal and hold or forward, transfer a call according to your availability. As with an analog phone you can set up the Teams client to have the option of a digital “speed dial”

  • One-click telephony – Businesses that use an endpoint that is Microsoft-certified that is connected to a phone system benefit from one-click telephony. These devices have a separate Team call button. You can use it to start a conversation or respond to an incoming call.

As you can observe from this feature set it is an ideal replacement for older telephone systems. Additionally, it offers the advantages that you’d think of from a cloud-based environment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Teams Phone System PSTN functionality can be enabled through the purchase of several Licenses that are offered to purchase Teams Phone System Licensing costs.

  1. Microsoft 365 subscription License
  2. Microsoft Teams Phone System License
  3. Microsoft Calling Plan (unless you are using Operator Connect or Direct Routing)

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