OPERATOR CONNECT VS

DIRECT ROUTING &

MICROSOFT CALLING PLANS

YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE THREE

DIFFERENT OPTIONS FOR ADDING PSTN
CALLING TO MICROSOFT TEAMS

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IN THIS GUIDE...

CONTENTS

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS? 3

CALLING PLANS VS. OPERATOR CONNECT VS. DIRECT ROUTING 4

COMPARISON TABLE 5

BENEFITS OF OPERATOR CONNECT 6

BENEFITS OF DIRECT ROUTING 7

BENEFITS OF CALLING PLANS 8

HOW WE CAN HELP 9

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WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?

With over 145 million daily users and rising, it is no surprise to see
Microsoft continually announcing new ways to add calling to their unified
communications platform, Teams. With the launch of Operator Connect,
there are now three options for adding voice services to Teams.

Microsoft is aiming to streamline the to Teams. One way to think about it

process of adding external PSTN calling is that these options represent three
to Teams by providing options that suit a alternatives on a sliding scale, with
range of requirements. Operator Connect positioned in the
middle as an option that balances the
Together with Direct Routing and convenience of ordering services through
Microsoft’s own Calling Plans, Operator Microsoft with the flexibility of Direct
Connect presents users with a third Routing.
option for migrating their telephony

MICROSOFT CALLING PLANS

Calling Plans provide bundles of domestic and international
minutes directly from Microsoft with a Microsoft 365 Business
Voice or Microsoft 365 E Calling Plan.

OPERATOR CONNECT
Operator Connect allows you to add PSTN calling from directly
within the 365 admin center by connecting carrier services
from approved third-party providers.

DIRECT ROUTING
By far the most popular option, Direct Routing allows you to
connect external carrier services from your chosen provider to
Teams via a Session Border Controller (SBC) located either on-
premises or in the cloud.

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CALLING PLANS VS.
OPERATOR CONNECT VS.
DIRECT ROUTING

Although on the surface these three voice connectivity

solutions are similar, key differences make each suitable
for distinct use cases.

Microsoft Calling Plans are that is interested in consolidating their

voice systems to a single network,
ideal for organizations without complex
achieving greater feature parity with
requirements that are looking for a
their previous phone system, or adding
voice service they can activate quickly
regional offices in areas Microsoft doesn’t
and easily on a per-user basis. It is
cover, has needed the flexibility of Direct
especially convenient for businesses
Routing — which is why it is currently the
that might value the regular monthly
most popular option.
price for budgeting reasons, and might
like that they can manage their whole
communications stack through the 365
admin center. Operator Connect comes some
way towards filling the gap between the
two, allowing organizations to add and
manage standard voice services through
Direct Routing sits at the other end the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, choose
of the scale, supporting organizations
their own carrier, and access some of
that need more flexibility and have
the cost savings of Direct Routing. It is
more complex requirements. These
important to note, however, that anything
could be anything from sophisticated
beyond standard voice requirements
configuration demands to the integration
will need to be arranged directly with
of other applications such as contact
the provider, and could involve Direct
centers. There are also cost benefits
Routing.
available, particularly through providers
offering more transparent “pay for what
you use” pricing models. Any organization

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COMPARISON TABLE

MICROSOFT CALLING DIRECT ROUTING

OPERATOR CONNECT
PLANS (PURE IP SERVICES PROVIDED AS AN EXAMPLE)

Provided by one of
External carrier services
the carriers available
are connected to Teams
VOICE on Operator Connect
Provided by Microsoft via a cloud-based or on-
CONNECTIVITY through trusted cross-
premises session border
connects between their
controller (SBC)
network and Microsoft
Number and service
management through the
Managed through the 365 carrier’s online customer
VOICE SERVICE Managed in the 365
admin center and the portal.
MANAGEMENT admin center
carrier’s portal
See Pure IP’s Number
Management tool >
Only supports Only supports
Voice application
applications designed applications designed
INTEGRATIONS integrations are fully
for Teams using 365 API for Teams using 365 API
supported
integrations integrations
Bundled calling plans,
Pay carrier for the Pay carrier for the
minutes, and licensing on
PRICING minutes used + monthly minutes used + monthly
a per-user, per- month
rental charge rental charge
basis

Supported; different
platforms, contact
SUPPORTING
centers, legacy systems,
HYBRID Not supported Not supported
and analog devices can all
ENVIRONMENTS
be connected using the
same voice network

VOICE ROUTING Standard options only Standard options only Completely configurable

Limited to the 26 Limited to the countries Get the coverage you

GLOBAL countries where Microsoft the Operator Connect need around the world
COVERAGE offers service as of late carriers can provide PSTN via hosted, fully managed
May replacement services in SBCs

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BENEFITS OF
OPERATOR CONNECT

If your organization has relatively vanilla requirements and does not

need the flexibility of Direct Routing, Operator Connect might be
right for you.

SECURITY & QUALITY CONVENIENCE

Operator Connect uses trusted cross- Operator Connect can remove the
connects, which are direct private complexity of having to manage
links between the Microsoft & carrier numbers internally through Microsoft
networks. That means your calls need PowerShell, instead allowing users
to go through one fewer hop on a to use the Teams interface, which is
public network, which contributes much less technical. Activating and
towards better quality and security. deactivating users in Operator Connect
Some Operator Connect carriers, is easier than in Direct Routing, where
like Pure IP, can use the same cross- licenses and configuration might need
connects to provide those benefits to to be managed separately.
their Direct Routing customers too.

COVERAGE
FAQ: CAN I MIX AND MATCH OPERATOR
CONNECT & DIRECT ROUTING?
Your organization may need voice
services in regions that Microsoft
simply doesn’t include in their Calling
Yes, you can! There are some limited Plans.
circumstances when your organization
might opt to mix and match solutions.
COST
For example, you might have some
teams that only need basic telephone
functionality, and so can be added Operator Connect opens up the
through Operator Connect, as well cost efficiencies of Direct Routing
as teams with advanced call queue to businesses with more basic
requirements that can only be satisfied requirements, that might want to
through Direct Routing. manage as much as possible through
the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

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BENEFITS OF
DIRECT ROUTING

Direct Routing is usually cheaper & more flexible than Calling Plans, and
caters to more complex telephony requirements. It can also be delivered as
a fully managed service, which can make it easier to consolidate services,
port numbers & reduce your hardware footprint.

AGILITY & INTEGRATIONS COVERAGE &

FLEXIBILITY CONSOLIDATION

Direct Routing offers your Direct Routing allows Direct Routing is available
organization much greater organizations to partner with globally, so you can select
flexibility in how you choose carriers who can integrate the carrier and plan that
to build your communications Teams with their other voice works best for you. It can also
stack. It is completely applications, such as contact be offered alongside a fully
configurable, and makes it centers, third party platforms, managed SBC service, which
much easier to achieve closer legacy systems and analogue can be used to connect hard-
feature parity with a traditional devices. to-reach regions, and integrate
telephone system. all your voice applications.

COST SMART INSIGHTS &

REDUCTIONS BILLING DID YOU KNOW?

Although bundled calling Direct Routing can give you External carriers, like
plans can be convenient for access to in-depth usage Pure IP, can also offer
budgeting, they can prove reports and advanced your business everything
expensive – particularly for monitoring tools, which from migration support,
enterprise users. Not only can help you identify, and PBX auditing, & proactive
do external carriers typically overcome, traffic bottlenecks monitoring services that
charge lower rates, some also and call quality issues. support you with issues
offer usage-based pricing Invoicing can also be done on such as security and
plans that are up to 60% more a regional basis, and includes network stability.
cost-effective than fixed-price full breakdowns of the voice
bundles. services and which teams
have been using them.

pure-ip.com
BENEFITS OF
CALLING PLANS

Microsoft’s Calling Plans offer convenience & bundled

pricing to organizations with basic requirements

Calling Plans allow organizations to arrange the

necessary Phone System licences, their domestic
and international minutes, and PSTN trunks all
directly from Microsoft.

As such, the main benefits of opting for Calling

Plans stem from having all of your telephony
within the Microsoft environment.

A single supplier
Some organizations prefer dealing with a
single provider/carrier, to minimize time spent
managing them.

Compliance
Some organizations might be more comfortable
working with a big name that can offer a degree
of assurance when it comes to compliance with
legislation such as E911 in the USA.

Ease of use
As everything is managed through the M365
admin center, it is easy to activate and deactivate
users and services, and especially convenient for
organizations that are using Microsoft products
elsewhere in the business.

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HOW WE
CAN HELP

Pure IP offers secure and reliable Operator Connect & Learn more about
Direct Routing >
Direct Routing solutions that utilise the scale, reach, and
flexibility of Pure IP’s cloud-based global voice network. Learn more about
Operator Connect >

Our Microsoft Teams Voice solutions are They allow organizations to accelerate and
provided as fully managed global services that simplify their migration to Microsoft Teams,
provide secure, resilient voice communications through either the Operator Connect service,
to organizations of any size. Both cloud-based or using our secure and easily deployable Direct
solutions combine the strength, scale, and reach Routing as a Service solution. The solutions are
of Pure IP’s own voice network, with the speed fully customizable with a range of services to
and flexibility of our fully managed services, support customers through the migration and
and around the clock access to our team of ongoing management of their Teams telephony
experienced voice engineers. environment.

Remote workers
Telephony

Direct Routing
Regional offices
and/or
Operator Connect

Conferencing
Customers &
Partners

CLOUD-BASED TECHNICAL SUPPORT ADD-ONS

♦ Robust, geo-redundant ♦ 24/7 follow-the-sun ♦ Hosted voicemail
network support ♦ Fax services
♦ Platform agnostic ♦ No triage - reach a voice ♦ IVR Queue
♦ Eliminate need for on- engineer every time ♦ Call recording
site hardware ♦ Manage your services ♦ Number management
♦ Flexibly add or change online ♦ Cloud enablement
your services
♦ SIP endpoints

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 At Pure IP, we connect the old with the new, integrating voice
across platforms, systems and applications to provide a single
connected communications service to enable business to
collaborate effectively in more locations than other providers.
We offer a suite of services built around our own secure,
reliable and adaptable global voice network, which is
supported by a team of experienced voice engineers.
With geo-redundancy and resilience built-in, our flexible voice
network has been designed to keep adapting to customer
requirements as they evolve.
This is why we are trusted by millions daily to power their
business communications.

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