The following frequently asked questions about Microsoft Teams Phone management are taken from our free 70-page ebook, Mastering Teams Phone: The Complete Guide To Provisioning & Best Practices.
Q: How many Teams Phone users are there?
A: Microsoft reports there are now over 80 million users of Teams Phone worldwide.
Q: What are the use cases for Teams Phone?
A: The major use case for Teams Phone is to enable your business users to make and receive external calls using a direct dial number. For example, calling another business in another location that is not part of your Teams environment. This could be calling your external accountant, who is not part of your business and has their own phone system and phone number. But you can also use Teams Phone for Shared Calling, meeting rooms, common area phones, shared devices, SIP gateways devices like paging, intercom, and DECT.
Q: What are the Teams Phone connectivity options?
A: When connecting Teams to the external calling world (PSTN – Public Switched Telephone Network) you can choose from four main connectivity options:
| Connectivity | Information | Reference |
| Microsoft Calling Plan | Microsoft provided PSTN connectivity – available in 35 countries | Microsoft |
| Operator Connect | Exclusive partner interop program with over 100 operators certified to provide calling in up to 75 countries | Operator Connect |
| Direct Routing | Open door connectivity for any provider or company to connect their PSTN connection to Teams using a certified Session Border Controller | Direct Routing |
| Teams Phone Mobile | Exclusive to mobile operators, Teams Phone Mobile enables mobile number direct dial to your Teams client and mobile device at the same time | Teams Phone Mobile |
Q: How does Teams Phone licensing work?
A: Teams Phone licensing can be complex to understand – especially when trying to make a purchasing decision. Essentially, to use Teams Phone, a user needs four things:
- Microsoft Office 365 plan
- Teams Enterprise license
- Teams Phone Standard add-on license
- A Calling plan (Microsoft, Operator Connect, or Direct Routing)
How they are assigned depends on the connectivity option chosen for the user.
| User Connectivity | Licenses Required |
| Microsoft Calling Plan Domestic | Office 365 F1,F3,E1,E3 (Without Teams) Microsoft Teams Enterprise Microsoft Phone Standard Microsoft Domestic Calling Plan Communication Credits* Or Office 365 E5 (Without Teams) Microsoft Teams Essentials Microsoft Domestic Calling Plan Communication Credits* |
| Microsoft Calling Plan International | Office 365 F1,F3,E1,E3 (Without Teams) Microsoft Teams Enterprise Microsoft Phone Standard Microsoft International or Domestic Calling Plan Communication Credits** Or Office 365 E5 (Without Teams) Microsoft Teams Essentials Microsoft International or Domestic Calling Plan Communication Credits** |
| Operator Connect and Direct Routing | Office 365 F1,F3,E1,E3 (Without Teams) Microsoft Teams Enterprise Microsoft Phone Standard Or Office 365 E5 (No Teams) Microsoft Teams Essentials |
| Teams Phone Mobile | Office 365 F1,F3,E1,E3 (Without Teams) Microsoft Teams Enterprise Microsoft Phone Mobile Or Office 365 E5 (No Teams) Microsoft Teams Essentials Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile |
* Communication Credits are required if the user needs to call numbers outside of the inclusive destinations supported by the plan. These include shared cost and premium domestic numbers.
** It is possible to provide international calling with a domestic only calling plan by using Communication Credits to fund the international calls.
In addition to standard user licensing, shared devices, meeting rooms, and resource accounts have their own unique licensing structures should you want to activate them for Teams Phone.
| User Connectivity | Licenses Required |
| Common Area Phone and SIP Phone | Teams Shared Device License Calling Plan (if required) |
| Meeting Room | Teams Rooms Standard or Pro Teams Phone Standard Calling Plan (if required) |
| Auto Attendant & Call Queue Resource Accounts | Teams Resource Account Calling Plan (if required) |
License Changes Affecting Teams
In 2024, Microsoft announced the unbundling of Teams (as a whole, not just Teams Phone) from its Office 365 Enterprise license plans due to the demands from the competition’s regulator.
Teams will now be sold as its own standalone license, which you will need to buy in addition to your Office 365 E or F plans.
There are two licenses to choose from:
- Teams Essentials
- Teams Enterprise
Only Teams Enterprise can be paired together with a Teams Phone Standard license to enable calling for users.
Confusingly, the Teams Phone Standard license is still included in the Office 365 E5 license plan, but you will need to buy Teams Enterprise as well to use it.
Q: How do Teams Phone numbers work?
A: Teams supports two types of phone numbers:
- User number: Can only be assigned to user accounts, both individual and shared device.
- Voice service number: Can only be assigned to a voice application resource account like an auto attendant, call queue, audio conferencing, or third-party voice application.
Numbers can be converted between uses via the TAC when provided by Microsoft or by contacting your operator or using your Operator management portal if supported.
For Direct Routing numbers, these can be assigned to all user types without needing to pre-select which number type it should be.
Q: How do Teams Phone call queues work?
A: Some of your Teams users will be agents in one or more Call Queues. With Call Queues, you can assign agents in three ways:
- Explicitly assign to a queue as an agent (Direct agent assignment)
- Become a member of a security group
- Become a member of a Teams voice enabled channel
| Assignment Type | Max Agents | Benefits | Disadvantages |
| Direct Assignment | 20 | Least administrative effort for small queues. Complete control over agent hunting order, especially round robin, and serial hunting. Agent membership can be delegated to department leaders in their Teams client. | Time consuming to manage as an admin when you’ve got more than 10 queues. Limited by the number of agents supported. |
| Group Assignment | 50 | Best for organizations with more than 10 queues to manage. Easier to provision agents. Maximum number of agents. | Agent membership can’t be delegated to department leaders. Unable to use serial or round robin agent hunting methods effectively. No controls over which agents are active when a group has more than 50 members. |
| Voice Enabled Channels (EOL: June 2025) | 50 | Shared call history between agents in Teams channel tab. Agent opt-in visibility. Department leaders can manage membership based on team members. Supports all members of a team. | Service is being deprecated and removed by Microsoft in June 2025. Unable to use agent serial or round robin hunting methods. Shared voicemail retrieval requires Power Automate. Doesn’t support private channels. All members of team considered agents when some may not require it. |
Next steps now you’re up to speed with Teams Phone
Provisioning and managing Teams Phone is an extensive challenge to overcome. However, with the correct planning, operational procedures, and tooling you can achieve a consistent experience for your users and support teams.
It’s important that your first task is to plan the Teams Phone experiences your business needs and expects for seamless operation.
To begin your Teams Phone provisioning plan, read our next post: 5 Tips For Building A Robust Microsoft Teams Phone Provisioning Plan.
