Huge news in the SMB voice space, Microsoft have now opened up the Microsoft 365 Business Voice SKU to over 70 countries via partner resellers (CSP, Cloud Solution providers), where the partner provides the telephony connectivity and minutes for the customer.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice with partner calling plan is available in all countries where Microsoft PSTN audio conferencing is available, except Australia. This is likely to do with the deal with Telstra there.
Previously this bundled SKU was only available in UK, Canada.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice is an add on SKU to SMB Office 365 Plans that include all of the following in one licence:
- Microsoft Teams cloud-based phone system with advanced features including call transfer, multi-level auto attendants, and call queues.
- Microsoft PSTN Dial-in audio conferencing for up to 250 people per meeting.
- 24×7 customer support, backed by Microsoft
- User phone numbers and calling plans (2 options, direct from Microsoft or via a partner)
There are two options:
- Direct from Microsoft which includes user phone numbers calling plans directly from Microsoft
- US ($20 PUPM), UK (£12 PUPM) and (Canada CAD $22.50) only
- World wide (including US, UK and Canada) via CSP partners, who add their own PSTN connectivity and calling plans for customers
- A lower-priced Microsoft SKU + the price for the calling plans from the partner
Business Voice is an is an add-on subscription for up to 300 users, that cannot be used standalone. It can be added on to:
- Office 365 Business Basic (previously called Office 365 Business Essentials)
- Office 365 Business Standard (previously called Office 365 Business Premium)
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium (previously called Microsoft 365 Business)
- Office 365 E1
- Office 365 E3
- Office 365 F1
- Microsoft 365 A1
- Microsoft 365 A3
- Microsoft 365 E3
The above SKU’s include Microsoft Teams, but up until now, you could not add PSTN audio conferencing numbers or phone system/calling plans. You had to move up to Office 365 Enterprise which is a decent price jump. Now you can with Microsoft 365 Business Voice
If you are above 300 seats there are enterprise licence SKUs to add PSTN Conferencing, Calling Plans and Phone System licences for your users. more details here
More details on Microsoft Calling Plans here
Reference
Introducing Microsoft 365 Business Voice
Microsoft 365 Business Voice resources
I can understand complexities of offering Business Voice for SMB in Australia for organisations that want to use a calling plan (due to Telstra owning that service), but doesn’t explain why we (Australians) couldn’t have it for use with Direct Routing if Calling Plans were off the table. No doubt there’s a commercial obligation with Telstra that might be at play. Hopefully this changes in the future.
[…] If you have below 300 users and are on one of the SME Office 365 Business SKU’s or E3, you can also add Telephony and PSTN Audio conference with the Business Voice SKU […]
[…] Microsoft 365 Business Voice for SMB now available worldwide, Up to 300 users Microsoft Teams Cloud … […]
Does anyone know if this new all in one plan can be combined with the previously open Office 365 calling features. For example supposed we have 10 users that want all the features of this plan but 20 users who only need calling between themselves via Teams (the $8 plan)? Can a single tenant have some users on this plan and other users on the older a-la-carte plans?
[…] This is very similar to what they have done with “Business Voice” for the SMB market. […]
[…] Microsoft already offers a special SKU (Stock Keeping Unit, or single product/service you can buy) for SMB customers (up to 300 users) called Microsoft 365 Business Voice. […]