Microsoft has shared a detailed plan for signing up for Shared Calling for Teams Phone.
The solution intends to offer an alternative to accommodate organisations where some users don't heavily use the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for their calling needs and might not need a dedicated assigned phone number. As well as a simplified process, Microsoft says that shared Calling also reduces costs for an organisation because it removes the need for that dedicated assigned phone number for each user.
An accompanying Microsoft blog wrote:
For these users, you should consider Shared Calling as a simpler, easier-to-implement phone solution for your organization. Shared Calling greatly simplifies phone number management for some users."
Instead of assigning a phone number to every user, Shared Calling admins set the phone number of a resource account associated with an Auto attendant for inbound and outbound PSTN calls. An Auto attendant "directs a caller to an appropriate person or department based on the caller's input to the provided menu options — for example, dial by name or dial by extension," as described by Microsoft.
The Shared Calling policy also configures the resource account utilised for outbound calls. Emergency numbers are also used as emergency callback numbers.
How to Configure Shared Calling
To configure Shared Calling for Teams Phone, admins must first assign Teams Phone licenses and enable users for voice before assigning a number to the resource account for inbound and outbound calling.
Admins must then associate the resource account with the Auto attendant for inbound calling and assign a location to the resource account for emergency calling. They then Assign a Pay-As-You-Go Calling Plan to the resource account with a Calling Plan service number.
They must assign and fund a Communication credits license, create a voice routing policy without PSTN usages, and enable emergency calling for users.
Lastly, they create a Shared Calling policy for the organisation and assign the policy to users.
Currently, Shared Calling can only be configured through PowerShell. Users must have Teams PowerShell Module version 5.5.0 or higher to use the new TeamsSharedCallingRoutingPolicy cmdlets. Users can leverage these cmdlets to produce and manage Shared Calling policies.
