Microsoft Teams Direct Routing
Teams calling priced by the call, not by the head
Why choose Direct Routing over per-user calling?
Pay for calls, not for headcount
Channels are shared across your organisation. If you have 80 licensed Teams users but never more than 20 on a call at once, you pay for the calls, not the 80
Minutes pool across the business
Your heavy callers draw on the same pool as everyone else, rather than each person having their own allowance to run out of.
Add users without adding calling cost
New starters get a number and get calling. Your channel count only changes when your call volume does.
See what you are using
Channel usage visibility and mid-cycle usage alerts, so a busy month is something you know about while it is happening.
How do channels work?
A channel is one call. If you buy ten channels, ten people in your organisation can be on a call at the same time; the eleventh gets a busy signal. It works the same way as a SIP trunk, and if you have had one before this will be familiar.
Most businesses need far fewer channels than they have staff. A team of 80 rarely has more than 15 or 20 people on the phone at once, so you size the service to your busiest moment rather than to your headcount. We will help you work out the right number, and you can change it as the business grows.
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How much control do I actually get?
- Call routing built around how you work. Routing rules, hunt patterns and call handling that go beyond the standard Teams configuration.
- We stay out of your tenancy: Lightwire connects the calling. Your Microsoft environment stays yours, with no third party inside your Teams admin.
- Number handling on your terms. Bring existing numbers across, keep number ranges intact, and hold numbers that are not tied to a single person.
- You hold the configuration. You or your IT provider set it up in your own Microsoft environment and change it when your business changes, without raising a ticket with us and waiting.
Do I need to run a session border controller?
No. A session border controller is the equipment that sits between Microsoft Teams and the phone network, and with Lightwire Direct Routing it is ours.
We supply it, configure it and manage it as part of the service.
You get the control and flexibility of Direct Routing without buying hardware or hiring the expertise to run it.
What do I need before I can start?
Your team needs Microsoft Teams Phone licences from Microsoft. That requirement is the same whichever way you connect calling, including Direct Routing. Teams Phone is the part that turns Teams into a phone system, and it is licensed by Microsoft rather than by us.
- Each call queue or auto attendant also needs its own Microsoft resource account licence. Microsoft charges nothing for these, but they do have to be added in your admin centre.nts & digital receptionists
- Shared devices such as reception or meeting room phones are licensed per device rather than per user.
What features are included?
- Auto attendants and digital receptionists
- Call queues and ring groups
- Caller ID and call routing rules
- Time-of-day diverts
- Voicemail to email
- Call park and retrieve
- Calls between New Zealand and Australia charged at national rates, not international
What does Direct Routing cost?
Contract terms are flexible. Prices are excluding GST.
Pricing starts with one question: how many calls does your organisation need to run at the same time? Talk to us and we will size it with you.
Direct Routing is available on 12 month and 24 month terms, on openterm, or pay as you go. An early termination charge applies if you end a fixed term early.
Operator Connect or Direct Routing, which should I choose?
Both Microsoft Teams Phone and 3CX deliver modern, cloud-based telephony - but the right choice depends on how your business or your customers work.
Not sure? Compare both on our Microsoft Teams Phone page or talk to us.
Frequently asked questions
Have a look through our most frequently asked questions. Can’t find what your looking for?
Check out our knowledge base or reach out to our friendly support team.
Direct Routing is a Microsoft-supported method of connecting phone calling to Microsoft Teams through a provider's own voice network, using a session border controller.
It gives a business more control over call routing and number handling than the standard connection methods, and it can connect Teams to existing on-premises phone equipment.
Lightwire prices Direct Routing per channel, which is the number of calls the organisation can have running at once, with minutes pooled across the whole business.
Operator Connect is priced per user per month, with any included minutes allocated to each user.
Businesses with many Teams users but modest simultaneous call volumes usually find per-channel pricing works out better.
A channel is one simultaneous call. Ten channels means ten people in your organisation can be on a call at the same time. It works the same way as a SIP trunk, and most businesses need far fewer channels than they have staff.
No. Lightwire supplies and manages the session border controller as part of the service. You do not buy hardware or run it yourself.
Yes. Direct Routing supports organisation-wide pooling, so included minutes are shared rather than allocated per user.
Yes. Every method of adding calling to Teams requires Microsoft Teams Phone licences, including Direct Routing. Microsoft supplies the phone system; Lightwire supplies the calling that connects to it.
Yes. We port numbers from your current provider in both New Zealand and Australia, including number ranges.
You do, or the IT provider who manages your Microsoft environment. Lightwire supplies the connection and manages the session border controller behind it, and the configuration inside your own Microsoft tenancy is yours to hold. If you would rather not configure anything, Operator Connect is the simpler option.
Our side is usually done the same day — we can have the connection ready for you within hours of the order.
From there the timing sits with you or your IT provider, because the configuration happens inside your own Microsoft tenancy and we cannot do it for you.
If you are bringing numbers across, porting runs to the standard timeframes for New Zealand and Australia, and we will tell you what those are for your numbers when we scope the job.
Yes. We offer a 14 day free trial, the same as our Operator Connect service. Talk to us and we will set it up.
Get Microsoft Teams Setup With Direct Routing
Make and take business calls inside the Teams app your team already uses.
Offering Teams calling to your own customers?
Lightwire supplies Microsoft Teams calling wholesale to MSPs and IT providers across New Zealand and Australia. You hold the customer, the billing and the margin.