If you’re looking to enable Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams, you need to first make sure your house is in order.
There’s no point in jumping the gun, searching for Direct Routing partners, agreeing a deal, only to find out that you’ve not got the appropriate pre-requisites.
In this blog post, we aim to provide you with everything you need to approach your chosen partner, confident you’re in a good place.
We won’t be covering things like user count, working out how many minutes you need to bundle, or anything like that. However, if costs and licensing is top of your agenda, bookmark The Rising Costs of Microsoft Teams.
What license do I need for Teams Direct Routing?
Before you do anything, you’re going to need a Teams Phone System license. This could be the make-or-break deal in your journey for Direct Routing.
Without this prerequisite license, you can’t enable Direct Routing through any vendor. Think of this as the telephone license and Direct Routing the means to make calls. Without a Teams Phone license, it’s like trying to dial a number without a handset.
To get a Teams Phone license, you can buy this directly from Microsoft, either on its Teams Phone page or via the Teams Admin Center (TAC).
Only then can you dive into enabling PSTN connectivity in Teams. Here, you have several options:
- Microsoft Calling Plan
- Operator Connect
- In-house Direct Routing
- Direct Routing as a Service (where a service provider looks after the infrastructure)
Choosing which PSTN connectivity option is right for you is a whole other discussion. For the purpose of this blog post, we’ll assume you’ve made your mind up on Direct Routing.
If you’re not that far in your journey yet, here are a few suggested resources:
- Direct Routing Vs Operator Connect
- Direct Routing vs Microsoft Calling Plan
- Operator Connect vs Microsoft Calling Plan
What is the SLA for Teams Direct Routing?
The SLA for Teams Direct Routing depends on a few factors. First, you’ve got the Teams phone SLA to factor in. Remember, this is a prerequisite before you turn on your PSTN connectivity. So there’s no getting away from this one.
Next, you’ve got the SLA defined by your chosen Direct Routing provider.
At this stage, it’s important to understand the differences between the two SLAs so you know what is covered by which provider.
1 – SLA for Teams Phone
The quoted SLA for Teams Phone is now 99.999%. On the face of it, this sounds great and is on par with all the major telephony providers. Just look at the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS and note every provider also reports the same SLA.
However, all is not quite as it seems.
There was quite the online uproar when Microsoft announced its new SLA, with some doubting the validity of its claims.
In an article for NoJitter, Melissa Schwartz broke down exactly when 99.999% applies.
Subscription date limitations
- If your subscription term began before April 1, 2024, your SLA will be whatever was in effect at that time.
- The new Teams Phone 99.999% uptime SLA will not apply until you renew.
Azure Communication Gateway limitations
- The Azure Communication Gateway is the supporting infrastructure for Operator Connect and Teams Phone Mobile.
- Azure Communication Gateway services will only support 99.99% SLA (as of May 2024).
- If your number was originally provisioned on the Azure Communication Gateway, the same 99.99% uptime will apply even if you move it.
Voice quality only comes with a 99.9% SLA
- 99.999% does not apply to voice calls, only the Teams Phone service (except Operator Connect and Teams Phone Mobile as above).
- 99.9% only applies when calls are made using Microsoft-certified IP phones.
- 99.9% only applies when calls are made using a wired ethernet connection (so calls over wireless connections, like home users, aren’t included in this SLA).
- Packet loss, jitter and latency issues on the call were due to networks managed by Microsoft.
2 – SLA from Direct Routing provider
The second SLA you need to know is the one set by your chosen provider.
Let’s call them Callroute 😉
Microsoft doesn’t dictate a set SLA for providers of Direct Routing. Each provider will have its own technologies in play so it will differ from provider to provider. For example, Direct Routing via Callroute comes with a 99.9% SLA.
For the sake of absolute clarity, that’s not to say it will only work 99,9% of the time. Rather, that’s the guarantee to you.
It’s a lot to take in. It’s a lot of 9s. Honestly, I had to read those last two sections back several times before hitting publish.
What are the benefits of Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams?
- Provides a consistent user experience as there’s no third-party calling app.
- Removes costs for hardware, software, and maintenance.
- Enables you to save money by leveraging existing telephony infrastructure or choose cost-effective SIP trunk providers, reducing overall telecom expenses.
- Covers regions outside of Microsoft Calling Plan.
- Allows users to make calls directly from Teams.
- Enables integration with line of business apps.
- Lets you keep your existing phone numbers.
- Scales easily by adding and deleting users.
- Enables complex routing setups not possible with Calling Plan or Operator Connect.
- Makes it possible to achieve feature parity with your previous phone system.
On the subject of achieving feature parity with your old system or enabling non-standard telephony features that Teams is yet to fully support, Direct Routing becomes a great choice if you’re hunting for these PBX features:
- PBX interop
- Least cost routing
- Media bypass
- SIP trunks
- Analog devices
- Fax
- ISDN connectivity
- Local site breakout
- Survival branch appliance
- Complex routing
- Extension support
- Disaster recovery
How much does Microsoft Teams Direct Routing cost?
Direct Routing pricing differs from provider to provider.
As a guide, we have included our own pricing, accurate as of August 2023:
- $1.24 (circa 95 pence) per user per month – assumes you bring your own SIP carrier and have 5,000+ users
- $2.83 (circa £2.15) per user per month inc unlimited minutes across all users – assumes you port your numbers and have 2,000+ users (applicable to UK and Ireland only; global pricing may vary)
Here, it’s important to understand the difference between which users will need bundled minutes and which simply won’t reach the 300 minutes per month threshold.
Businesses often overspend on licensing because they haven’t had the chance to audit who uses what.
When a business is sizeable (1,000s of users), it’s near possible to keep track of their behaviors and usage (without investing in more technology to track this).
What you can do is categorize users into different personas and departments. If specific users (like call center agents or outbound sales teams) are likely to use a lot of monthly minutes, it makes sense to pre-pay for bundled minutes.
For accounts-type roles, where responsibilities remain in-house, how many external minutes do they realistically use?
When these questions are asked, it becomes obvious. Usually, it’s just a matter of stepping back and taking stock of what you have or need.
How do I enable users for Direct Routing in Teams?
So those are your only major Direct Routing requirements:
- Teams Phone license
- Understanding of how many people need a Teams Phone license
- Whether those Teams Phone-enabled users need a minutes bundle
- Find a Direct Routing provider that matches your goals
From here, a quality provider will run a requirements gathering call to fully understand what you’re trying to achieve.
Sure, you want Direct Routing. But let’s make sure you get the most out of it.
Here at Callroute, our unique Direct Routing solution allows you to enjoy the full feature set of Direct Routing and integrate your PBX with Microsoft Teams, all in minutes.
When you choose Callroute, expect the following:
- Connect any carrier: Use your existing service provider and connect them to Teams
- PSTN replacement: Use Callroute’s built-in PSTN calling services for turnkey connectivity
- SIP phone support: Connect your existing SIP devices to Callroute
- Call recording: Record your PSTN calls for compliance purposes
- Automated failover: Automatically divert inbound calls to your mobile when Teams is offline
- Automated provisioning: Automatically assign phone numbers and other settings to your Teams users
We support Microsoft Teams Direct Routing globally, with three exceptions: China, Japan, and India.
Ready to enable Direct Routing?
