Skype for Business; conference call confusion

[Russell_Morris]

We have Office 365 Business Premium licences for our office workers; we also have a Webex subscription that is not meeting our needs, so I would like to give Skype a whirl.  I am getting incredibly confused bouncing around from one MS page to another, trying to figure out what we need to achieve our goal.

What I want:

I would like a meeting initiator to send out a Skype meeting request to external customers.

For the meeting initiator to call into a conference number so that we can use our conference phone in a meeting room.

For customers to be able to call into the conference number or use traditional Skype audio.

What I have done:

Taken out a 'Meeting Room' trial subscription and assigned a licence to the initiator.

Logged into the Skype for Business Admin Centre, selected 'Voice', added a geographically appropriate number and assigned it.

Logged into the Skype for Business Admin Centre, selected 'Audio Conferencing', and assigned the initiator to the new number.

What doesn't work:

I ring the conference number and am asked for a conference ID, which I do not possess.

I create a new Skype meeting and the e-mail/invite does not include a conference ID.

I suspect that I may also need the 'Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing' add-on and assign a licence to the initiator.  As there is a minimum 12-month term I do not wish to subscribe unless I am sure I am correct.  I am also struggling to identify the associated costs of the phone number associated with the voice bridge in the Skype for Business Admin Centre.

I would very much appreciate some guidance!

Russell.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@Russell_Morris You need the Audio Conferencing add-on, for the person scheduling or hosting the meeting, this adds a conferencing telephone number when creating a Skype or Teams meeting that delegates can phone to join the meeting. 

Skype for Business add-on licensing

There are various steps to make this work that is outlined here - Set up Audio Conferencing for Skype for Business.

[#3]

@Cian Allner

Dear Cian, thank you for your reply.

But under the Skype Admin dashboard I can see 'Users enabled for audio conferencing: 2', which appeared after I took out the 'Meeting Room' add-on and assigned it to two users.

So does 'Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing' replace 'Meeting Room', or are they both required?  As it stands, Meeting Room has already allowed me to assign a conference number.

Edit: Ah, Is Meeting Room strictly for device licences?  I was confused as **bleep** allowed me to assign them to users.

[#4]

@Russell_Morris  This explains (including the linked article) what meeting room licence is for, it's meant for meeting room devices such as Microsoft Teams Rooms and Microsoft Surface Hub.  Some of the comments talk about they didn't find this SKU as useful as they thought they would and just used Audio Conferencing: 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams/teams-meeting-room-licenses-now-available-for...

[#5]

Ah thank you! I shall remove the meeting room and give conferencing a go.