Enterprise telephony on infrastructure that earns the word carrier-grade.
Connect Microsoft Teams Phone to the PSTN via Direct Routing on a carrier-grade network with 99.999% up-time and a certified engineering team that's been deploying Teams Phone longer than most have been selling it.
Direct Routing, Operator Connect, or Microsoft Calling Plans? Here's our honest take.
Three ways to connect Microsoft Teams to the PSTN. They differ in who controls the carrier layer, how much flexibility you have over routing and numbers, and whether you can run Teams alongside other voice applications on shared infrastructure. Teams Plus deploys via Direct Routing.
Microsoft Direct Routing on T+
Connect Teams Phone System to the PSTN via a certified Session Border Controller on the Teams Plus network. Full carrier control. Number porting, routing configuration, call policies, and SIP trunk management. Real-time call monitoring running underneath every call leg.
Direct Routing is the right choice when your organization needs control over call routing, carrier relationships, and number management. It also lets you keep existing carrier contracts (BYOC) and run multiple voice applications on a single network underneath.
Enterprises with complex call routing requirements, existing number inventories, organizations bringing their own carrier contracts (BYOC), or any business running multiple voice applications that need to share a single carrier-grade network.
Operator Connect
Operator Connect is Microsoft's carrier marketplace model. Microsoft pre-validates a set of carriers; your organization selects one and connects to the PSTN directly through the Teams Admin Center without configuring a Session Border Controller. More carrier-grade than Calling Plans. The carrier is a real carrier, not Microsoft.
But it is less flexible than Direct Routing. No custom SBC configuration. No BYOC. No ability to bring an existing carrier relationship outside the OC program. Organizations cannot run Teams alongside Five9, NiCE, TCN, or other voice applications on a shared carrier-grade network. Teams Plus deploys via Direct Routing, not Operator Connect.
Organizations that want a real telecom carrier under Teams (not Microsoft acting as carrier) but prefer a managed provisioning experience inside Teams Admin Center and have no requirement for custom routing, BYOC, or multi-application shared infrastructure.
Microsoft Calling Plans
Calling Plans is Microsoft's own bundled telecom for Teams Phone. Microsoft is your carrier. You purchase per-user calling licenses through Microsoft. Number provisioning, billing, and PSTN connectivity all sit inside the Microsoft 365 stack.
Limited country coverage. Per-minute and per-user pricing that scales unfavorably at volume. No BYOC. No ability to run Teams alongside Five9, NiCE, TCN, or other voice applications on a shared carrier-grade network. Microsoft's carrier capabilities are not designed for high-volume outbound or contact center workloads.
Small deployments in countries where Calling Plans is available, with low call volume, no contact center workload, and no existing carrier relationships worth preserving. For everyone else, Direct Routing is the better economic and operational answer.
The Microsoft layer is visible. The carrier layer is what matters.
Network Up-Time
Five nines. What carrier-grade means in practice. Every Teams Phone call on the T+ network runs on infrastructure built to this standard.
Real-time call monitoring
Call quality, SIP diagnostics, and carrier route health visible across every Teams Phone call. When quality degrades, operations know before the helpdesk does.
Geographic redundancy
Four carrier-grade data centers across North America: Calgary, Toronto, Las Vegas, Culpeper. Teams Phone calls don't stop when a data center has an issue. Redundancy is structural, not a failover plan.
NPS Score
Enterprise SaaS NPS averages 31. Teams Plus delivers 90+. The difference is an engineering team that engages at the infrastructure level, not a support ticket queue.
Deployment experience
Teams Plus has been deploying Microsoft voice infrastructure since Direct Routing launched. 400+ deployments across enterprise, mid-market, and multi-site organizations.
Bring your carrier
Organizations with existing carrier contracts and number portfolios can run them on the T+ network without renegotiating carrier relationships. Your numbers, our infrastructure.
STIR/SHAKEN attestation
Full A-level attestation on outbound calls. Verified caller ID signals to terminating carriers that the call is legitimate. Compliant with FCC requirements out of the box, included in the network, not bolted on.
More from your Teams Phone investment.
Teams Plus layers additional capabilities on top of your Teams Phone deployment: texting, analytics, queue management, and call recording, all running on the same infrastructure.
Business texting from your Teams number
Send and receive SMS and MMS from your existing Teams Phone number without leaving the Teams interface. The same number your customers already call, now also texts.
- 1-to-1 and group texting up to 10 members
- Broadcast SMS with opt-in and opt-out
- Files, images, and video via MMS
- HIPAA compliant · Outlook and CRM integration available
User Analytics: reporting across your Teams tenant
User-defined dashboards, trend monitors, and automated reports covering call quality, user adoption, productivity, and cost visibility across every user and location in your Teams environment.
- Call quality monitoring and SIP/SBC health
- Answered/abandoned calls, ring-time, talk-time per user
- Resource management: SIP trunks, devices, gateways
- Cloud-delivered, up and running in hours
Real-Time Queue Analytics: live wallboards for your floor
Real-time monitoring of Call Queues, Auto Attendants, and agent performance. Know what's happening on the contact floor before your customers feel it.
- Live agent presence status and activity monitoring
- Call volume, missed calls, and overflow visibility
- Threshold alerts and gamification for agent motivation
- Role-based access: team leaders see only their teams
Hosted Voice Recorder: 24 months of storage included
A fully managed cloud recording platform on the T+ network. No Azure infrastructure to maintain, no client secrets to rotate, no services to monitor for continuity.
- 24 months of call recording storage at no extra cost
- ~$300/month savings vs. customer-managed Azure recording
- Legal Hold, retention policies, and selective recording
- Live supervisor listen-in and supervisor assist (barge-in)
Engineering engagement from day one, not week six.
Architecture review with T+ engineering
Before any configuration begins, a Teams Plus engineer reviews your existing telephony architecture, call routing requirements, number inventory, and Microsoft tenant configuration. For most enterprise environments, Direct Routing is the right path. We'll walk through why, and surface any edge cases where a different approach might apply.
SBC configuration and SIP trunk establishment
Certified SBC configuration, SIP trunk establishment, call policy and routing configuration. T+ engineering handles the carrier-side configuration entirely: SIP architecture, route planning, and number porting coordination from your existing carrier.
Number porting and testing
Number porting from existing carriers with call quality monitoring through every leg of the cutover. Full call testing across inbound, outbound, transfer, and emergency calling scenarios before go-live.
Go-live and ongoing monitoring
Call quality, SIP health, and carrier route performance are monitored from day one of production traffic. Your team has visibility into the same real-time metrics the T+ network operations team monitors, so issues surface before they affect users.
Teams Phone deployment, answered.
What is the difference between Direct Routing and Microsoft Calling Plans for Teams Phone?
Microsoft Calling Plans is Microsoft's own bundled telecom. Microsoft acts as your carrier, with per-user licensing and Microsoft-controlled PSTN connectivity. Direct Routing connects Microsoft Teams Phone to any certified Session Border Controller and any carrier, giving organizations full control over the voice infrastructure beneath Teams. A third option, Operator Connect, sits between the two: a real telecom carrier connects through the Teams Admin Center without SBC configuration, but without the flexibility of Direct Routing. Teams Plus delivers Microsoft Teams Phone via Direct Routing on carrier-grade voice infrastructure with BYOC support, real-time call monitoring, and the ability to run Teams alongside other voice applications on a single network.
What is Operator Connect and how is it different from Direct Routing?
Operator Connect is Microsoft's carrier marketplace model. Microsoft pre-validates a set of carriers; your organization selects one and connects to the PSTN through the Teams Admin Center without configuring a Session Border Controller. It is more carrier-grade than Microsoft Calling Plans because the carrier is a real telecom provider, not Microsoft. It is less flexible than Direct Routing: no custom SBC configuration, no Bring Your Own Carrier, no ability to bring an existing carrier relationship outside the OC program, and no ability to run Teams alongside Five9, NiCE, TCN, or other voice applications on shared infrastructure. Teams Plus deploys Microsoft Teams Phone via Direct Routing, not Operator Connect.
How does Teams Plus deploy Microsoft Teams Phone?
Teams Plus deploys Microsoft Teams Phone via Direct Routing on carrier-grade voice infrastructure. The deployment uses four data center anchors (Calgary, Toronto, Las Vegas, Culpeper), Tier-1 carrier redundancy, certified Session Border Controllers, and 99.999% network uptime. Existing numbers can be ported. Existing carriers can be retained via BYOC.
Can Teams Plus replace my existing telecom for Microsoft Teams Phone?
Yes. Teams Plus replaces or supplements existing telecom providers for Microsoft Teams Phone deployments. Customers can keep existing numbers via porting, keep existing carrier relationships (Bring Your Own Carrier), or move fully to Teams Plus carrier services. The Teams client experience does not change for end users. See the carrier integration model →
What Teams Phone add-ons does Teams Plus offer?
Four Teams Phone add-ons. Teams Text is business SMS sent and received natively in Microsoft Teams. User Analytics provides call analytics for end users and managers. Real-Time Queue Analytics gives contact center supervisors live monitoring of call queues. Hosted Voice Recorder delivers compliance-grade call recording with configurable retention.
Does Teams Plus work for Microsoft Teams Phone contact center deployments?
Yes. Teams Plus supports Microsoft Teams Phone in contact center contexts via Real-Time Queue Analytics, Hosted Voice Recorder for compliance recording, integration with third-party contact center platforms (Five9, NiCE, TCN, Solgari), and carrier-grade capacity for high-volume inbound and outbound voice traffic.
How you deploy matters more than what you deploy.
Talk to a Teams Plus engineer about your Teams Phone deployment. No demo. No deck. Just a conversation about your architecture.