Microsoft Teams Phone with Calling Plan to be available in January

Microsoft has announced that they are consolidating Microsoft 365 Business Voice, their cloud-based phone system for small and medium businesses,  with their Enterprise offerings into a new SKU named “Teams Phone with Calling Plan”.

The intention is to simplify the purchase decision process and streamline the delivery of enterprise-grade capabilities to SMBs.

Teams Phone with Calling Plan is an all-in-one communication solution that helps SMBs reduce costs and simplify operations. It brings together calling, chat, meetings, and collaboration into a single app, enabling users to make phone calls from anywhere, on any device—including computers, smart phones, desk phones, and meeting rooms.

It combines essential telephony components: A phone system and domestic calling plan, into a single package.  Audio Conferencing will also be available as part of all Teams-inclusive Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscriptions.

Teams Phone with Calling Plan delivers secure, reliable, and rich calling with features such as auto attendants, call queues, consultative transfer, and voicemail transcription, while leveraging Microsoft’s trusted cloud to deliver reliable, high-quality audio with intelligent and AI-powered capabilities. Customers can easily manage the solution in the same admin console as the rest of their Microsoft 365 and Office 365 services.

Teams Phone with Calling Plan will be available in 33 markets as an add-on to Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans that include Microsoft Teams and can be purchased directly from Microsoft or through an IT partner. Partners may start transacting Teams Phone with Calling Plan through CSP on January 1, 2022.

Those countries include Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

It will also be available directly on the Teams Phone website in the US, UK, and Canada on January 3rd, and in the remainder of markets later in January.

Teams Phone can also be purchased as a standalone service, which gives businesses the option to bring a calling plan from a third-party provider and is available in over 70 countries through a Microsoft partner.

via Neowin