Microsoft Teams Phone For Business
One platform for calls, chat and collaboration - with support you can trust.
What is Microsoft Teams Phone?
Microsoft Teams Phone adds full calling functionality to Microsoft Teams, turning it into a complete business phone system.
With Lightwire’s direct routing, you can make and receive calls on any Teams-enabled device - from desktop to mobile - without relying on legacy PBX hardware.
For businesses in New Zealand and Australia, Teams Phone offers the simplicity of one platform for collaboration, meetings, and telephony - all backed by Lightwire’s award-winning support.
Two ways to add calling to Microsoft Teams
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.
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Not sure? Compare both on our Microsoft Teams Phone page or talk to us.
What You Get Either Way
Everything you expect from a modern PBX, delivered inside Microsoft Teams:
- Auto attendants & digital receptionists
- Call queues & ring groups
- Caller ID & call routing rules
- Time-of-day diverts
- Voicemail to email
- Call park and retrieve
What do I need to run Teams as a phone system?
Your team needs Microsoft Teams Phone licences from Microsoft. Teams Phone is the part that turns Teams into a phone system, and it is licensed by Microsoft rather than by us. Lightwire supplies the calling that connects to it. If you are not sure what you hold today, your IT provider can check, or talk to us and we will walk you through it.
- 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.
- Shared devices such as reception or meeting room phones are licensed per device rather than per user.
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.
Microsoft Teams Phone is the Microsoft licence that turns Microsoft Teams into a phone system, so a business can make and take external calls in the Teams app alongside chat and meetings.
It does not include the calling itself.
The calls are carried by a telecommunications provider, which connects to Teams either through Operator Connect or through Direct Routing.
Lightwire supplies that calling in both New Zealand and Australia.
Usually not, and many businesses do not use desk phones at all — Teams works on a laptop, a mobile and a headset.
If you want physical handsets, Teams-certified desk phones work directly with either connection method.
Older handsets from a traditional phone system generally will not connect to Teams, but with Direct Routing they can often be kept in service alongside it.
Tell us what you have and we will tell you what carries over.
Both add phone calling to Microsoft Teams. Operator Connect is set up from within the Microsoft Teams admin centre and is priced per user.
Direct Routing connects calling over the provider's own SIP infrastructure, is configured by engineers, and Lightwire prices it per channel.
Operator Connect is usually faster to set up; Direct Routing gives more control where a business has existing SIP services or devices to keep.
Yes. Microsoft Teams Phone licences come from Microsoft and are separate from Lightwire's calling, and the licence requirement is the same whichever connection method you choose. Lightwire supplies the calling; Microsoft supplies the phone system it plugs into.
Yes. Lightwire supplies Operator Connect calling in both countries on a single account. Microsoft's own calling plans pool minutes only within one country, so a business operating on both sides of the Tasman cannot get one combined allowance from Microsoft directly.
Yes. We port numbers across from your current provider in both New Zealand and Australia. Tell us the numbers you want to bring and we will handle it.
Get Setup With Calling For Microsoft Teams
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.
