Forum Discussion
Teams Audio Conferencing - sharing numbers?
Stephen Bell I'm not sure what you are asking about when you refer to "sharing numbers". Up to 250 participants can join a meeting by phone (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/audio-conferencing-common-questions#how-many-total-phone-participants-can-i-have-in-meetings). Every participant calls the same number and enters the conference code shown in the meeting invite. (You can have multiple conference bridge numbers to make it a local call for users in different locations, or to provide a toll-free number. Callers can also use any of Microsoft's shared conference bridge numbers, which can be accessed from the link in the meeting invitation.)
It doesn't really matter who sends out the invitation, but it would make the most sense for it to be the person who "chairs" the meeting most often. Rather than scheduling a new meeting every week, why not just make it a recurring meeting?
You don't need to worry about "scheduling conflicts for the phone number" because this particular meeting will have a unique conference code. Even if someone else had another meeting scheduled at the same time using the same conference bridge number, their meeting would have a different conference code.
Ryan Steele - Thank you for the reply.
I think this was the missing piece I did not put together:
"You don't need to worry about "scheduling conflicts for the phone number" because this particular meeting will have a unique conference code. Even if someone else had another meeting scheduled at the same time using the same conference bridge number, their meeting would have a different conference code."
That being said - I guess my next query would be around licensing. Today, through our conference call provider, we pay per phone number - let's say $20 per month. For $20 per month, anyone in our company - that knows that number - can use it.
With the teams model, I would need to assign Audio Conferencing licensing to each user that wished to schedule a call - which is not as cost effective, correct?
Stephen Bell Whether the Audio Conferencing licensing model is more or less cost-effective would depend on your current licensing and usage. If some or all of your users have Office 365 E5 licenses then it could be more cost-effective because Audio Conferencing is included in that license.
Assuming that is not the case, it may still be more cost-effective if only a small number of users in your organization need to schedule dial-in meetings. If a large number need this capability, then yes, you will be paying more, but you will no longer have the hassle of ensuring that two people aren't trying to use the same conference number at the same time.
- You could also limit the licenses for dial-in to a few users. If these users will plan the Meeting where dial-in is needed, then you are good to go.
Only the meeting organizer need to have a dial-in license assigned. All others that join doesn’t need it.
Let me know if you need additional information.
Kind regards and stay healthy,
Mitchell Bakker
