When Microsoft announced Shared Calling at Ignite 2023, it sparked the interest of many businesses that could now benefit from one single calling plan for a number of users
The cost benefits are extremely attractive and the shared outbound ID makes it ideal for group-based campaigns.
Sounds brilliant, but all is not well with some deployments.
In this post, we’re going to raise awareness of the most common issues reported when Shared Calling isn’t working (and attempt to resolve them).
1 – Configuration problems
The most obvious reason for Shared Calling not working is that there’s an issue with your configuration.
Yes, unfortunately, this means it’s human error.
Note: We’re big fans of removing human error from your provisioning processes.
Read all about the benefits of auto-provisioning for Microsoft Teams here.
Before you try to fix anything, make sure you’ve got the required pre-requisites:
- 1 x Teams Phone Resource Account License
- 1 x Calling Plan (120, 1200, 3000 Domestic, or 600 minute international, or PAYG)
- Funds added to your communication credits license if out-of-plan calls are to be permitted
- 1 x Teams Resource Account created
- 1 x Auto-Attendant created
- 1 x Service number acquired from Microsoft in the geography you require
Without these, Shared Calling shouldn’t work anyway.
To set up Shared Calling, there is a requirement to use PowerShell. First, make sure you update to Teams PowerShell Module version 5.5.0 or higher. You can then use the TeamsSharedCallingRoutingPolicy cmdlets.
Once you’ve got your pre-requisites and have the right version of PowerShell, follow these instructions to set up Shared Calling for the first time (or second if it’s not working and you need to start from scratch):
First, you will need to create a resource account for your auto attendant. You can do this from the Teams Admin Center.
Now that your resource account has been created, go to Entra ID and license that account with the Teams Phone Resource license and a calling plan.
Once licensed, go back to Teams Admin Center and attach the service phone number you want to use as your Shared Calling number to the resource account.
Now create the Shared Calling auto attendant and attach the resource account to the attendant application.
You may wish to enable search by voice for incoming callers to find the person they want to speak with. How you configure your attendant is up to you. You can create different menu options, automatically play a recorded message, route to a call queue, or a person. Or you can simply have the attendant do nothing.
Whatever you decide, an attendant must be created. This is mandatory.
Make sure to add your resource account to the attendant before you save it.
Once the auto attendant is created, you need to assign a location for emergency calling. While this may not be used in the UK, this is required in many other countries where the location of the caller is passed to the emergency call center. Therefore, it is a mandatory step.
To do this you need to use the Teams PowerShell module. Assuming you’ve successfully connected to your tenant, type the following command and copy the LocationID of the address you want to assign to your Shared Calling account.
Now, use PowerShell again to set this location against the shared calling number you assigned to your auto attendant resource account using this command:
Important: Check your Global Online Voice Routing Policy in your tenant. Make sure that it isn’t using any PSTN Usages. If it is, then you need to create a new Online Voice Routing Policy that doesn’t have any PSTN Usages assigned. Then, assign this new policy to your Shared Calling users.
If your Global policy does not have any PSTN Usages assigned, you can use this.
Now you must configure your emergency call back solution. When users make a call to the emergency services without configuration, the caller identity displayed to the emergency operative will be the number assigned to the shared calling auto attendant.
In some countries, it is a legal requirement for phone providers to supply a method for the emergency operative to call back the caller in cases where they are cut off. Regardless of legal status, it is best practice to implement this wherever you are.
Without configuration, the operative won’t be able to reach the user who made the call, instead will be connected to the Shared Calling auto attendant.
You may configure an operator on the auto attendant, but this will waste valuable time as the operator, if they do answer, may not know about the emergency or who made the call. In a life and death scenario, this could be pivotal to the outcome.
To mitigate this, you should add emergency call back numbers to your Shared Calling Policy. These numbers must exist and not be used by another user or service or shared policy in your tenant and be of the same provider i.e. Microsoft numbers.
When an emergency call is made, Teams will select a number from the list of assigned call back numbers within the shared calling policy and present that number instead of the Shared Calling auto attendant number to the emergency call center operative.
This number is then reserved for 60 minutes and mapped directly to the Teams user who is making the call.
Should the Teams user be disconnected from the call prematurely, the emergency operative can call back the Teams user directly using the call back number associated with that call. Essentially, it is like assigning a temporary DDI to the Teams user.
This is vital to ensure connectivity during such a critical time. Failure to configure this could constitute negligence on your part that may lead to prosecution in the future.
To configure emergency call back numbers, first either using Teams Admin Center or PowerShell, find and copy at least two free numbers you have acquired from Microsoft in the same country and area code as your Shared Calling main number.
Be mindful that these numbers will still show as unassigned in the Teams Admin Center and PowerShell subsequently to their use in this policy. You will need to ensure that your support team are fully briefed NOT to assign these numbers to another account.
Now you have these numbers, you need to go back to PowerShell.
Load each emergency call back number into its own variable, like so.
Next, you need to load the resource account attached to your Shared Calling auto attendant into a variable object, using this command:
Now you can create the shared calling policy and attach it directly to the shared calling resource account using this command
Full commandlet reference below:
$ecbn1 = “+441270610369” $ecbn2 = “+441270610370” $scaa = Get-CsOnlineUser -Identity [email protected] New-CsTeamsSharedCallingRoutingPolicy -Identity London -ResourceAccount $scaa.Identity -EmergencyNumbers @{add=$ecbn1,$ecbn2}
Now that this has been created and configured, the last step for you to do is to assign this Shared Calling Routing Policy to your users.
To do this, you need to use PowerShell.
2 – Using Shared Calling with SIP devices
If you’re getting the message “please assign a phone number to the user to login to this device”, or similar, this is the correct behavior for SIP phones.
As of June 2024, Shared Calling doesn’t support SIP gateway registration. This means phones like the Poly Rove or any Spectralink DECT handset won’t work.
However, one post in the Teams Community Forum has suggested this has at least been requested inside Microsoft. While there is no commitment and no traceable roadmap to follow, signs are positive for one day in the future.
One Reddit user, NerdBanger, suggested a workaround until SIP registration gets supported:
“I think I’m going to resort to using Asterisk and then using that as the SBC for Teams.”
It’s worth a try if you’re determined to get Shared Calling in this manner. But Microsoft would suggest waiting until the native capability is supported.
3 – Concurrent calls limit
Microsoft doesn’t publish a limit for concurrent calls. Theoretically, you shouldn’t come across this issue via a Microsoft issue.
Suggestion here is to check your network constraints. It may be the case that you’re at capacity for the bandwidth allocation for a particular site.
If there is a serious number of concurrent calls that doesn’t match your usual calling or network patterns, a monitoring system may have triggered a temporary restriction to avoid potentially fraudulent activity.
Check for any third-party software or systems in place that could be causing a restriction on the number of calls parties can make at one time.
Alternative to Microsoft Teams Shared Calling
Did you know you can get Shared Calling for free?
If you’re using Microsoft Shared Calling, then with Callroute you can automatically assign shared calling policies to users using our persona management tool as part of our Orto for Teams user management solution.
Create your user persona that contains the Shared Calling policy you want to assign, then create an automation to apply this persona to users who match a given criteria.
If you use Callroute for Teams Direct Routing, we offer similar capabilities for Shared Calling, but without the complicated setup.
Unlike Microsoft, where calling plans are issued per user, Callroute calling plans are issued per company.
This means, by default, you benefit from Shared Calling capabilities out of the box without the need for setting up anything complicated in Teams to handle this.
All you need to do is assign your Teams users a phone number and they can benefit from the calling plan you purchase from Callroute.
We offer domestic and international plans from as little as 300 minutes to bundles of 5,000 minutes and more. Or if you prefer a more flexible approach, we also offer PAYG calling on 30-day rolling contracts.
See your real costs below:
If you’re interested in doing Shared Calling without the hassle, check out our pricing page and get set up in minutes.
