Nine new carriers have been added to Operator Connect as the service hits general availability.
AT&T, Colt, Gamma, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Optus, Singtel, Telefonica Global, Telia, and Telstra International join as launch partners – taking the total carriers to 21.
Microsoft had already revealed that Operator Connect would become generally available this week, having been in public preview for some time.
Operator Connect is the third option for voice in Microsoft Teams, alongside Direct Routing and Teams Calling Plans. It allows businesses to plug in services from certified carriers with less of the complexity that comes with Direct Routing.
Microsoft says there are four key benefits to Operator Connect:
- Leverage existing operator contracts: Keep your preferred operator and contracts, while enabling a modern calling experience in Teams
- Simple and quick to deploy: It can take just minutes to connect to your operator and assign phone numbers to users – all from the Teams Admin Center. You do not need to be an expert in voice to deploy calling to Teams
- Operator-managed infrastructure: PSTN calling services and Session Border Controllers (SBCs) are managed by operators, saving on hardware purchase and management
- Enhanced support and reliability: Operators provide tech support and shared service level agreements to improve support service, while direct peering powered by Azure creates a 1:1 network connection for enhanced reliability
Microsoft said that it will continue to add new carriers to the service, while interested businesses can see which operators cover which region here.
Elsewhere, Microsoft Teams Calling Plans have been expanded to five new countries: Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia. The additions take the total available markets to 33.
