Set up Audio Conferencing with Microsoft Teams for free for a limited time

November 30, 2021

Providing a call-in number for your meetings is a great way to make sure your attendees can join. Even if attendees can’t use the Teams client, they can dial-in and participate.

With Audio Conferencing, people can call in to Teams meetings using a phone instead of using the Teams app on their mobile device or from their computer.

If you’re a small or medium-sized business with up to 300 users and you currently don’t have any Audio Conferencing licenses, you can get Audio Conferencing free for one year through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.

The Audio Conferencing add-on license can be applied to users who have Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, Enterprise E1, or Enterprise E3 licenses.

Note: If you have Enterprise E5 or Microsoft 365 Business Voice, you won’t be able to use the free Audio Conferencing offer because these licenses already include Audio Conferencing.

Once you’ve set up Audio Conferencing, your meeting organizers can now schedule meetings in Outlook. In Outlook, go to Calendar, and then select the New Teams meeting button. The meeting dial-in numbers and the conference ID are automatically added to the meeting invitation that’s sent to meeting attendees.

Note: If you want, you can customize meeting invitations to add your company logo, links to your support website and legal disclaimer, and a text-only footer.

There are two types of numbers that you can use for your conferencing bridge. You can use either shared numbers or dedicated numbers. Here’s more information about each.

Shared numbers

A shared number is a number that’s shared across all organizations. Shared numbers are toll numbers and are automatically assigned when you set up Audio Conferencing.

To see the default number that’s assigned to your conferencing bridge, in the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Meetings > Conference bridges, and then find the number for the location that’s nearest to you.

Dedicated numbers

A dedicated number is a number that’s available only to your users. A dedicated number can be a toll number or a toll-free number. To use a dedicated number, you’ll have to first get the number, assign it to your conferencing bridge, and then assign the number to each person who will lead meetings.

There are a couple ways to get a dedicated number. You can get a number from Microsoft or transfer (port) an existing number from your current service provider to Microsoft.

Keep in mind that if you use a toll-free number, you have to first assign a Communications Credits license to each person who will lead meetings.

After you have your number, assign it to your conference bridge. Use the Microsoft Teams admin center to do this.

1. In the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Meetings > Conference bridges.
2. Select Add, and then select Toll number or Toll-free number.
3. In the Add phone number pane, select the number, and then select Apply.

Then, assign the number to each person who will lead meetings. Use the Microsoft Teams admin center to do this.

1. In the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, select Users, click the display name of the user, and select Edit.
2. Select Edit next to Audio Conferencing, and then in the Audio Conferencing pane, select a number in the Toll number or Toll-free number lists, and then select Apply.

 

If you aren’t currently using Microsoft 365 for Audio Conferencing, you can still do so for free. Contact us and we can add the licenses to your tenant.