Teams Phone Licencing Explained

Microsoft Teams Phone can provide a wealth of functionality and flexibility for your organisation. To use it you need to license your user appropriately. This guide will simplify the often too complex world of Microsoft licensing to understand exactly what you need for Microsoft Teams Phone.

In this guide we will cover

Microsoft Teams Phone add-on

It’s more than likely, if you are an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 customer that you are already licensed for Microsoft Teams. Microsoft sells its productivity products in bundle suites which broadly break down into

  • Microsoft 365 for Business – for small and medium businesses up to 300 users
  • Office 365 - the core products for Enterprise Customers (E licenses)
  • Microsoft 365 – the full suite for Enterprise Customers (ME licenses)

There are also special suite options for Frontline (F licences), UA government (G licenses) and Education (A licenses).

Unique to Microsoft Teams, it can also be bought as a standalone product, “Microsoft Teams Essentials”. This is a cheaper license that only includes Microsoft Teams, not Exchange, SharePoint, Office apps or any other components of Microsoft 365.

Teams Phone is an add on capability to core Microsoft Teams, officially called “Teams Phone Standard”. Teams Phone Standard licenses give you all Teams Phone System capabilities like cloud voicemail, caller ID, call park, call forwarding, auto attendants, call queues, call transfer, and caller ID.

This add-on license is included in Office 365 E5 and Microsoft 365 E5 (ME5), the top tier license suites. Great news if you have Office 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 ME5, you already have the core licence for Teams Phone and by deploying you can unlock the value of that investment.

If your users have any other license SKU/Suite, you will need to buy the Add-on Teams Phone Standard License.

There is no additional licence cost for the user software on desktop or mobile, or the use of Physical Teams Phones or Teams Displays for licenced users.

Phone Numbers and Calling Plans

Teams Phone standard includes the capability for Teams to be a phone, but to activate it you need to give your users phone connectivity and a phone number. There are a few different options here.

  • Microsoft Calling Plans - Microsoft offers first party phone number and calling plan bundles and PAYG options
  • Operator Connect is a Microsoft certified program for telephony providers, such as Pure IP, can offer Phone numbers and calling plans, all from the cloud, integrated directly into Microsoft Teams
  • Direct Routing is an option to connect a physical or virtual Session Border Controller to Microsoft Teams. This can either be customer managed equipment or service provider managed, sometimes called Direct Routing as a Service
  • Teams Phone Mobile is an option that limited certified mobile providers have to offer a mobile number and contract that is also your Teams Phone number, all integrated into a single service/experience.

None of these require an additional “capability licence” but they will require some kind of service cost, either per user or per DDI/per telephony channel (concurrent call) depending on the model of the provider.

You may also want Communication Credits. This is a Microsoft capability to pay per minute for PSTN calls. It can be used in various scenarios including:

  • Microsoft Calling plan overages or international calls on a domestic plan
  • Credit for Microsoft Pay as You Go Calling Plans
  • Credit for PSTN Audio Conferencing outbound calling beyond any minutes included
  • Credit for free Phone numbers for Microsoft Audio Attendants, Call Queues or PSTN Audio conferencing

This may not be needed if you do not use Microsoft as your operator and are happy with the included PSTN Audio Conferencing allowances and capabilities.

Which option is best for you will depend on your user requirements and your countries/locations. Pure IP was one of the first Microsoft certified providers and has some of the highest country coverage. We offer both Operator Connect and Direct Routing, including dedicated managed Session Border Controllers for complex scenarios. We are happy to advise you on your options.

Have a question?

If you would like to start an order, or you have a question about Pure IP and Operator Connect, please send us a message and a member of the Pure IP team will be in touch soon to discuss your requirements. 

Thank you.

How do I licence Teams Phones in common areas?

Where you need phones that don’t have a dedicated user, for example a phone for a room or outside a door, sometimes called “common area phones” you need a dedicated licence, the “ Microsoft Teams Shared Devices” licence. This can be used to sign in a physical Teams Phone, Teams Display in Hot Desking mode or a DECT Phone.

How do I licence Microsoft Teams systems for meeting rooms?

Microsoft certifies room solutions from many partners, these are called Microsoft Teams Rooms. For very basic requirements, 1-4 rooms and basic functionality, you can use the free Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic licence. For full features and management, you will need the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro licence.

How do I get Phone numbers for my meetings, PSTN Audio Conferencing?

PSTN audio conferencing is technically a separate licence but is a free add-on to nearly all Office 365 / Microsoft 365 suites. You do not need Teams Phone to add PSTN Phone numbers for people to dial into your Microsoft Teams meetings.

If you have any questions about Teams Phone licensing, how to optimise you Teams Phone investment or deploy Microsoft Teams Phone, get in touch with Pure IP.