More bandwidth management features coming to Microsoft Teams

The rise of video conferencing has been a big strain for companies with under-developed IT infrastructure, especially in services such as healthcare where a strong mixture of both on- and off-site work continued throughout the pandemic.

Microsoft has been slowly working to address the issue, with the company currently working on a Low Data mode for Microsoft Teams, revealed last month. The new low data mode allows users to cap the amount of data that will be used during Teams video calls as well as establish different settings based on network availability.

Now the Microsoft 365 roadmap has revealed another new bandwidth managing feature the company is working on.

The new  Roaming bandwidth control feature is a new capability that would allow admins to set dynamic bandwidth policies which are based upon the geographic location of users’ Teams clients. This allows admins to set more limited bandwidth controls for when users travel to remote or bandwidth constrained locations and then relax limitations when they travel to a location with higher bandwidth capacity.

Initially, two settings from the Teams Meeting Policy will be included – AllowIPVideo, which would allow or bar video vs audio calls, andMediaBitRateKb which would place a limit on the quality of your call.

The Low Data Mode should be rolling out now for Admins, and the new Roaming bandwidth control feature is set to be released for the Teams desktop and Web client some time this year.

via Neowin