Enterprise Connect 2021: Microsoft announces 5 new Calling Plan countries taking total to 33.

At Enterprise Connect today, Nicole Herskowitz made a handful of announcements about further enhancements and improvements to a Teams including the announcement that Microsoft Teams Calling Plans is being expanding into 5 new markets

  • Croatia
  • Estonia
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Slobenia

Native calling plans now in 33 countries

Native Microsoft Teams Calling now in 33 countries

Enabling calling in Teams

As well as buying and enabling calling plans direct from Microsoft (where Microsoft essentially becomes your PSTN provider), there are two other ways to get a phone number and PSTN connectivity direct from within Microsoft Teams.

Direct Routing – which is essentially “bring your own SBC or Carrier) which allows you to keep your existing SIP provider and connect to it via a certified SBC

Carrier Connect – which went into General Availability today, allows organisations to enable PSTN in Teams direct via participating operators which connect direct into Teams via Azure.

Covered in detail here, carrier connect provides potential benefits to larger/global organisations (over Microsoft Calling plans) including:

  • Keeping preferred operator contracts, while enabling modern calling experience in Teams.
  • Rapid deployment of calling in Teams by connecting directly via Teams to your existing operator and assigning phone numbers to users.
  • Reduced hardware and management costs since PSTN services and SBCs are managed by the operator
  • Enhanced, global support since Carrier Connect operators are responsible for shared service level agreements.

Read more

Read more on the official annoucements from Enterprise Connect here.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/operator-connect-general-availability-and-new-microsoft-teams/ba-p/2783723

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