If your team already lives in Microsoft Teams for chat and meetings, adding PSTN calling inside the same app is the obvious next step. You stop running two clients, you stop training people on a separate softphone, and you get one place for messages, meetings, and calls. We do this for customers as a Direct Routing setup: VoIP International is the carrier, Teams is the dial pad.
The reason customers come to us instead of buying Microsoft Calling Plans is usually some mix of price, geographic coverage, support, and the freedom to keep the rest of their phone system flexible. Direct Routing gives you Teams as the user-facing app while we run the carrier side - hosted PBX features, integrations, and the support team.
What Direct Routing actually is
Microsoft Teams has a dial pad built in, but Microsoft does not give you phone numbers in every situation, and their calling plans are not the cheapest route. Direct Routing lets you connect a third-party carrier - us - to your Teams tenant. Inbound calls hit our PBX, route through Microsoft, and land in the Teams client of the right user. Outbound calls go the same way in reverse.
What you get:
- Real phone numbers on your team's Teams accounts
- Full PSTN inbound and outbound calling from the Teams client (desktop and mobile)
- Caller ID controls, voicemail, hold music, the standard features
- Auto-attendant and hunt groups handled on our side and routed into Teams
- Per-user policy controls, including who can call international and who cannot
- Call queue handling on our PBX before calls reach Teams users
Full integration details are on the Microsoft Teams integration page.
How the architecture flows
Inbound: customer dials your business number. Call hits our PBX. Our PBX applies auto-attendant or queue logic, then hands the call to our session border controller (SBC). SBC speaks SIP to your Teams tenant. Microsoft routes the call to the right user's Teams client. User answers on a laptop, phone, or Teams-certified desk phone. Outbound: user dials a number from Teams. Call goes through Microsoft to our SBC, then onto the PSTN. From the user perspective, it is the same Teams dial pad. From your bill's perspective, you are paying our per-user phone service rate, not Microsoft's per-user calling plan.
What it costs
Our side of the bill is the same as our standard phone service:
- $32/user/mo All-Inclusive Phone Service for unlimited US calling per user
- $15/user/mo + $0.025/min Per-Minute for low-volume users
Microsoft licensing is separate. Direct Routing requires the right Teams Phone license on each calling user (E5 includes it, or add Teams Phone Standard). We will not surprise-quote you Microsoft licensing - check your tenant before signing anything.
What the bill actually looks like end-to-end
For a 30-user office mixing All-Inclusive and a few Per-Minute users:
- VoIP International: 25 users at $32 + 5 users at $15 = $875/mo plus per-minute on the five low-volume users (typically under $50 combined).
- Microsoft Teams Phone Standard: roughly $8 per user per month if added a la carte. Often already included if the team is on E5 or Business Premium with the calling SKU.
- Number porting: $15 per number, one time.
- Hardware: optional - many Teams calling users only use a headset on a laptop, so hardware cost goes to a $119 BH71 Bluetooth headset rather than a desk phone.
How this compares to Microsoft Calling Plans
Microsoft's own Calling Plans bundle minutes per user. For users who make a lot of calls, the per-user minute cap may not be enough. For users who barely call, you are paying for minutes you do not use. Direct Routing with us is unlimited US calling on All-Inclusive, or a true metered rate on Per-Minute. The flexibility usually wins on math for offices with mixed-call-volume staff.
How the integration is built
We do the heavy lifting on our side, but it helps to understand what is happening. The Teams tenant routes calls to our session border controller (SBC). The SBC speaks SIP to our hosted PBX. Inbound flow: PSTN -> our PBX -> SBC -> Teams -> user. Outbound is the reverse.
What we configure during setup:
- SBC trunk and authentication with your tenant
- Voice routes and dial plans per user or per location
- Emergency calling location for each user (E911)
- Number assignments per user via PowerShell or the Teams admin portal
- Auto-attendant routing on our PBX that hands clean calls to the Teams users it should reach
- Per-user calling policy (international allow/deny, recording on/off)
What to consider before turning it on
Direct Routing is straightforward once you have done it a few times. First-timers trip on the same handful of things:
- Licensing. Every user who needs PSTN calling in Teams needs Teams Phone (or E5). Without it, the dial pad will not appear.
- Number porting. If your phone numbers are with a different carrier, port them to us before turning on Direct Routing. Porting is $15 per number and runs 7 to 14 business days.
- Emergency calling. 911 must be configured per user with a registered address. E911 misdial fee is $150 - federal carrier passthrough, not a VoIP International markup.
- Caller ID and voicemail. Decide whether voicemail lives in our platform (with transcription as a paid add-on) or in Teams. Both work, but pick one and stick to it.
- Hybrid users. Not everyone needs Teams calling. Reception desks, call queues, and dispatchers often work better on a dedicated handset on our standard PBX. Mix both.
- Tenant-side admin access. Direct Routing setup needs a Teams admin to run a few PowerShell commands or accept policy assignments. Schedule a working session with the right admin in the room.
- Conditional access policies. If your tenant restricts sign-in to managed devices, the Teams mobile app on a personal phone may need a policy exception.
Who this is for
Microsoft Teams + Direct Routing fits cleanly for:
- Offices already on Microsoft 365. The Teams client is already deployed. Adding calling is one license SKU and a configuration project.
- Remote and hybrid teams. One app on the laptop and the phone, same identity in both places.
- Companies retiring an old softphone. Consolidating Teams + carrier-provided calling kills a second client.
- Multi-site offices. Teams handles the client; we handle routing across locations.
- Companies that want to standardize end-user experience. One app for chat, meetings, calls, and voicemail.
It does not fit as well for:
- High-volume contact centers - call queue features in Teams are limited compared to a real contact center stack.
- Field crews where the desk phone is the wrong form factor - look at Pro Mobile instead.
- Practices that need clinical-grade compliance recording inside the client - we can do this on our PBX side but Teams call recording is a Microsoft policy decision.
- Reception roles that want a real desk phone with sidecar keys - we can mix a Yealink T54W on our standard PBX alongside Teams users without breaking anything.
What a rollout looks like
For a typical 30-user office:
- Week 1: Discovery, license audit, quote
- Week 2: SBC and routing configured on our side, test users provisioned in a pilot
- Week 3: Port orders submitted, broader user training
- Week 4: Cutover, monitoring, retire old PSTN service
The pilot we always recommend
Take five users from across the company - one from finance, one from sales, one from operations, one executive, and one IT admin. Provision them on Direct Routing for a week. Have them place outbound calls, take inbound calls, test the mobile app, and try the voicemail flow. They will surface 90% of the issues you would otherwise find during cutover. Fix those before turning on the other 25 users.
Honest caveats
- Teams is not a contact center. Basic call queues work. Heavy queueing, skills-based routing, and real-time agent supervision do not. If you need contact center features, ask us about routing the front end through our PBX and only handing calls to Teams when an agent picks up.
- Voicemail transcription is a paid add-on on our side. Microsoft has its own voicemail in Teams. Choose one and standardize.
- Hardware compatibility matters. Teams-certified IP phones cost more than generic SIP phones. If you want desk phones for some users, plan for Teams-certified Yealink or Poly devices, not a generic T33G.
- Outages happen. Microsoft 365 has had service incidents that take Teams calling down. We can configure failover so calls roll to Pro Mobile or mobile apps when Teams is unavailable.
- Hold music depends on configuration. Default Teams hold music is generic. If you want custom hold music, plan to configure it on our PBX side before the call reaches Teams.
- International calling needs policy. By default, Direct Routing inherits dial-out controls from Teams policies. Lock down international calling at the policy level for users who do not need it.
Common mistakes with Direct Routing
- Buying Teams Phone licenses for users who do not need PSTN. Internal-only callers do not need a license. Audit before adding seats.
- Skipping emergency address configuration. The E911 misdial fee is real. Walk every user through registering their location.
- Trying to run reception inside Teams. Receptionists need a transfer-heavy interface with sidecar keys. Give them a real desk phone (T54W with an EXP) on our standard PBX, not Teams.
- Forgetting mobile users. Teams mobile calling works, but a sales rep in a parking lot wants Pro Mobile, not a Teams call over LTE data.
- Not piloting before cutover. Roll out to 5 users for a week before pushing 30. Catch SBC and policy issues in the pilot.
- Skipping the auto-attendant. Routing every inbound call into a queue means nobody hears a menu. A short auto-attendant in front of the queue gives callers a way to self-route.
- Ignoring Teams update channels. Some calling features depend on the Teams client version. Standardize update settings across the org.
What to ask a Direct Routing provider
- Do you operate the SBC or is it third-party? Operator-run SBC means one throat to choke.
- What is the support path for Teams-specific issues? Some carriers will say "call Microsoft." We do not.
- Is there a contract minimum? Month-to-month is the right answer.
- How do you handle E911 location updates? User-managed or admin-managed? Confirm in advance.
- What integrations beyond Teams are included? Our integrations page lists everything.
- What is your record on outage handling? Ask for an example of a recent Teams or carrier outage and how it was resolved for their customers.
- Do you offer per-user policies for international calling? Important for cost control.
Real customer example
A 65-user professional services firm we migrated last year: previously on Microsoft Calling Plans for 65 users at roughly $20 per user including the calling minutes bundle. International calling overages were eating $400 a month. We moved them to Direct Routing with our $32/user/mo All-Inclusive plan for 50 users and $15/user/mo Per-Minute for 15 back-office users. Total monthly: about $1,825 plus negligible Per-Minute charges. They saved about $400/mo on the carrier side, eliminated the international overages, and gained our integrations with their CRM. Hardware? Zero - everyone was already on laptops and headsets.
Where companies see the savings
Two places, usually. First, getting off Microsoft Calling Plans onto our unlimited All-Inclusive tier saves money on heavy callers. Second, the contract flexibility - month-to-month with no termination - removes a hidden cost that legacy carriers bake into their pricing. Multi-year contracts always come with a premium even if it is not labeled as such.
What ongoing administration looks like
After cutover, the day-to-day admin work is split: user provisioning happens in the Teams admin portal (assigning numbers, applying policies), and call-routing logic (auto-attendants, hunt groups, queues, business hours) happens in our PBX portal. The split is logical once you get used to it. We document the boundary clearly during onboarding so your IT team knows what to do where. Most admins find that user adds and removes take five minutes once the playbook is clear.
Where to start
Tell us your current Teams setup (licenses, number of calling users, where your numbers live today) and we will scope Direct Routing with a real number. Start at the Microsoft Teams integration page or get started. For broader pricing context, the pricing page covers the underlying service tiers. If you want to compare against the all-in-one Microsoft option, the comparison pages cover the math.