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Microsoft Teams Blog
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Direct Routing is now Generally Available!

Paul Cannon's avatar
Paul Cannon
Former Employee
Jun 28, 2018

Starting today, Microsoft Phone System Direct Routing is now generally available. Direct Routing allows customers to choose their telecom provider to enable their users to make and receive calls in Teams. If your country is supported by Teams and Phone System you can start planning and deploying Direct Routing in your organization today. Direct Routing and Calling Plans are now your 2 choices for dial tone in Microsoft Teams.

 

 

There are two primary approaches to deploying Direct Routing for you to consider.

 

CUSTOMER DEPLOYED SCENARIO. If you read our May blog on Direct Routing, you are already familiar with our initial approach to deployment. This scenario has 3 key elements: (1) Office 365 with Phone System enabled, (2) Session Border Controllers (SBC) from our certified partners such as AudioCodes or Ribbon, and (3) trunks from your voice provider. Customers have been previewing this scenario since May. For customers who want to manage the infrastructure on-premises this will be their optimal choice.

 

PARTNER HOSTED SCENARIOS.  Back in May 2018, we also began working with providers around the world on a second scenario to ensure that customers who wanted a hosted architecture would have options. This can mean hosted SBCs, additional management capabilities, and other services. We encourage you to reach out to this first set of providers who tested Direct Routing in their environments – BezeQ International, BT, Cellip, Nuwave Communications, Orange Business Services, Swisscom, TATA, Telekom Deutschland, Telenor, Thinktel, and West to learn more about their offerings. As we go forward, we expect more companies to offer solutions and services with Direct Routing to our joint customers.


 

 

We will continue to enhance Direct Routing including plans to deliver improved support for escalating calls, media bypass, and enhanced trunk support to help our partners scale their solutions.

 

GETTING STARTED. If you are new to Teams, please review our quick start guides.  It helps to be comfortable with Teams before proceeding to Calling. Next - review these articles:  Plan Direct Routing, Configure Direct Routing, and Migrating to Direct Routing. We have also recorded a deeper dive on Direct Routing to further aid in your understanding.

 

Regardless of your requirements for calling in Teams, Microsoft has you covered with options from Direct Routing and Calling Plans.

 

 

Updated Jan 26, 2021
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  • Koen Van den Broeck's avatar
    Koen Van den Broeck
    Copper Contributor
    Jun 29, 2018

    It looks great and I can't wait to start implementing it, however the media flows for internally connected users needs some improvement first. It is hard to imagine for larger companies that media flows between client will flow all the way up to the public IP of the SBC, while the SBC is a device with multiple NIC in order to connect it both internet facing an internal. 

    Any idea when this will be implemented ? Maybe it is up to the SBC providers to foresee this ?

     

  • itsbrad's avatar
    itsbrad
    Iron Contributor
    Jun 29, 2018

    Direct routing looks like an awesome service, for those using the service are you not finding it limiting with the certified Skype for Business USB and phones not working with Teams yet?  

  • Ewan Haig's avatar
    Ewan Haig
    Copper Contributor
    Jun 29, 2018

    Great news.  If any partners want to have play with Direct Routing the AudioCodes MSFT certified virtual SBC is free to download and comes with 3 runtime sessions (again free of charge).  Also one our our parters did a great blog as to how to set this up (step by step instructions). https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-setup-direct-routing-microsoft-teams-using-audiocodes-jason-wyatt/

     

    For any UK partners wanting to get hold of the virtual SBC and everything you need to get up and running just ping us on uksales@audiocodes.com

     

    Cheers 

     

    Ewan (AudioCodes UK).

  • Johan Skånberg's avatar
    Johan Skånberg
    Copper Contributor
    Jun 28, 2018

    Great work Microsoft and I am very proud to work for one of the first service providers that can now offer Microsoft Teams Direct Routing to all our global customers. I truly believe Teams are here to stay and we have only begun to explore the possibilities of this excellent Digital Canvas for a modern way of collaborating

  • gary woods's avatar
    gary woods
    Iron Contributor
    Jun 28, 2018

    LOVE #MSTeams and so do our clients! The feedback from everyone we have on boarded so far has been UNANIMOUSLY POSITIVE.  Teams is a game changer. We are seeing the paradigm shift away from email & deskphones to the centralized, collaborative, and intuitive Teams client as one place for everything (file storage, threaded & persistent chat, meeting notes, video calls, PSTN calls, etc!). Most excited I have been about an advanced IT Solution in many years. Great job Microsoft