Microsoft retired Skype for Business Online (SfBO) in July 2021. To help protect the investment that you have made in Skype for Business Online phones (3PIP phones) and help you upgrade to Teams, we now offer a solution through SIP Gateway to enable these devices to securely connect and function as Microsoft Teams endpoints. We encourage you to make necessary updates (detailed later in this blog) as soon as possible because Skype for Business Online will be permanently turned off on July 31, 2023.
The following are a few scenarios that can help you chart the course of action for your organization:
- You have compatible 3PIP devices connecting to Teams via SIP Gateway on July 31, 2023 – no action needed on your part, your phones will continue to work via SIP Gateway.
- You have compatible 3PIP devices connecting to Teams, but not through Teams SIP Gateway on July 31, 2023 – your phones will stop working, unless you take steps described below to upgrade your devices to connect to Teams through SIP Gateway.
- You have incompatible 3PIP devices connecting to Teams on July 31, 2023 – your devices will stop working, you must replace them with Teams phone devices or compatible Teams SIP devices for continued scenario support.
When should you get started?
SIP Gateway is the recommended approach for customers to continue using 3PIP phones to connect and work with Teams. We recognize that the upgrade of 3PIP devices to SIP Gateway can be lengthy, and so we highly encourage beginning the process as soon as possible.
What is SIP Gateway?
SIP Gateway enables customers to use compatible 3rd-party devices with Teams and leverage the following core Teams calling features:
- Incoming and outgoing calls with hold/resume and transfer
- Call forwarding
- Dial-in to and dial-out from meetings
- In-a-call presence and “Do not disturb” settings on devices
- Dynamic E911 support on select SIP Gateway compatible devices
- Voicemail and message waiting indicator
SIP Gateway is available with your Teams Phone Standard license with PSTN enabled.
Why should you upgrade to SIP Gateway?
With SIP Gateway you can continue using your devices with Teams through a more secure, future ready core telephony platform. SIP Gateway provides the following benefits:
- Added security: Upgrade to SIP Gateway for a more secure experience for your phone devices with Teams.
- Future ready core telephony platform: SIP Gateway will invest in scenarios that are not available for 3PIP phones today.
- Join Teams Meetings on SIP Devices: Users can attend Teams meetings from SIP devices, and meetings attendees can invite a SIP device to the meeting.
- Manage multiple concurrent calls: Make concurrent calls, receive calls by placing calls on hold, or combine calls into one call.
What is the process to upgrade devices to SIP Gateway?
Your administrator needs to take the following steps:
1. Provision your devices with SIP Gateway
a. For an AudioCodes 3PIP Device
i. Onboard your AudioCodes 400 HD series devices to OVOC and AudioCodes Device Manager
ii. Setup AudioCodes OVOC account if you don’t have one already
iii. Configure the SIP Gateway provisioning URL in Device Manager – Get more information on how to set up the device management tool here
iv. Upgrade the phone firmware version to the minimum supported firmware (or higher) for SIP Gateway
v. In the Monitor Page, under Actions menu, select More, and then select SET as TEAMS SIP Gateway
b. For a Poly 3PIP Devices
i. Onboard (redirect) your Poly VVX and/or Poly Trio devices to Poly Lens from RPRM/PDMS-E or through DHCP server reconfiguration
ii. Setup Lens Account if you don’t have one already
iii. Upgrade the phone firmware version to the approved firmware for SIP Gateway. For more details on the approved firmware version go here.
iv. Remotely reset the devices from Lens
v. Create Phone Policy with SIP Gateway Provisioning enabled and select the SIP Gateway region you want to provision your devices to
c. For a Yealink Device
i. Reset your 3PIP Yealink T40 series devices to factory settings
ii. Redirect your devices to SIP Gateway provisioning server through DHCP server reconfiguration
2, Configure SIP Gateway for your organization
3. Activate your devices to use SIP Gateway. For more information on how to activate your devices go here.
a. Sign-in to the device locally or
b. Enroll device for remote sign in from Teams admin center
Reach out to us through your Microsoft account representatives or Support if you have any questions and stay tuned for more details.
