Microsoft Teams Direct Routing
In 2017, Microsoft released Teams as an integration with their Office 365 subscription productivity suite. Teams is Microsoft’s Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) platform and has replaced Skype for Business Online, allowing users to collaborate via chat, video conference, and calling.
What is Microsoft Teams Direct Routing?
Direct Routing allows an organization to access the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) from Microsoft Teams so users to make and receive phone calls. In order to connect to the PSTN from teams, you must enable Microsoft Phone System, its native PBX functionality.
Microsoft Phone System is included with certain licenses like E5, but can also be purchased as an add-on to an E3 license. In order to ensure incoming and outgoing calls are passed through the Microsoft Teams client and delivered to your end-users, you’ll need a Microsoft-certified SBC (Session Border Controller) as well as a provider for both your SIP trunking and E911 Services.
The Benefits of Teams Direct Routing
One of the most attractive things about Direct Routing is the pay-for-what-you-use model that generally comes with SIP trunking. The cost of Direct Routing depends on your individual inputs, such as who your SIP trunking provider is, what usage model you’re set up for, who your E911 provider is, what E911 services you require, who your SBC vendor is, and what option (hosted, on-prem, etc) you choose.
When an organization decides to use Teams for PSTN access and obtains the proper license with Microsoft Phone System, they actually have two options: Direct Routing and Microsoft’s own Calling Plans. Microsoft Calling Plans, powered by Bandwidth, is a seat-based model that comes with a list of line features.
Learn about Bandwidth’s Duet℠ for Microsoft Teams solution
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