Forum Discussion
How do I set up toll free numbers for Teams? / help with audio confereence
Hey there, so I've read through all the documentation and I still don't understand. Calling plans, o365 phone system, CAP, communication credits , audio conference add on?? Here's what am tryin...
Hi Gabriel McColl,
There's nothing special you need to do to use Teams to meet with external people. When a user schedules the meeting, they just enter the email address of each participant. The recipients will be able to join using the link in the meeting invitation whether they are internal or external.
StevenC365 is correct that Audio Conferencing is what you need to have participants be able to dial in to a meeting. The documentation about it is here. You will see there are two types of number that can be used to dial in: dedicated phone numbers and shared phone numbers. If you want a "toll-free number" (e.g. a 1-800 number in North America) you need to obtain a toll-free Service Number and assign it as a conference bridge. Since toll-free numbers have a per-minute cost associated with them, you also need to purchase Communication Credits to fund it.
However, when you say you want people to be able to dial in "toll free, globally", it sounds like you're looking to use the shared phone numbers Microsoft makes available world-wide. Again, there is nothing special you need to do here. In the meeting invitation, the number shown will be the default number assigned to the meeting organizer, but there will also be a "Local numbers" link that the recipient can use to see the list of the shared numbers.
As for hardware for a conference room, the Polycom equivalent for the "spider phone" that works with Teams would be the Trio 8500 or 8800. There are similar devices from other manufacturers. Here's how they work: you may be familiar with the concept of a "room mailbox", where a meeting organizer can book a meeting room by adding it to the meeting invitation. When you have a Teams-compatible conference phone, you sign in to the device using this room mailbox. When the meeting organizer schedules a Teams meeting and adds the room mailbox to the meeting invitation, the device receives the invitation. Then, at the scheduled meeting time, a "Join" button appears on the device's display that allows the meeting organizer to connect to the meeting.
Note that the Trio is an audio-only device when used with Teams. If you want to have video as well, you will want to look into a Teams Room solution.
The above was helpful so I have non-profit issue, therefore everything has to be cost effective.
We have a UK mobile and would like to port this into teams then set this up on an mailto:info@domain.com then if any calls are received from that number it polls out to all those users that are connected to the group that look after that email. That way many can answer the call instead of the one currently.
Also with E5 if we take this up and are all calls both incoming and outgoing included in the package i.e. no additional cost for calling plans on a monthly basis.
If the porting and the above wont work, would it work if we selected a number with 020 (UK London area code) at the start.
I hope the above is self explanatory.
Regards,,
Andrew
AJ-WDRC First of all, if you are an eligible non-profit, you are hopefully aware of https://charitydigital.org.uk/, where you can get discounts on software including Office 365.
Second, if you are a smaller organization, you should look at the Microsoft 365 Business Voice package that is now available in the UK: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/small-and-medium-business-blog/introducing-microsoft-365-business-voice-in-canada-amp-the-uk/ba-p/970064
There are essentially two ways of allowing multiple users to answer a call to a specific number. The main method is with a Call Queue, where the caller hears a greeting and then hold music while the call is offered to the users you have designated as Call Agents. The other way is with Group Call Pickup, which is really intended for individual users to answer calls on their behalf, but may also suit your needs.
I would recommend signing up for a Phone System trial and requesting some temporary numbers so you can test the system out for yourself.