MS Teams Phone Numbers

Question

Hi All,

We are going to enable the phone system for MS Teams and integrate it with Cisco On-Promise UCM by Direct Routing. Call from MS phone system will route through SBC to CUCM and then back to SBC to the PSTN. And we need to assign phone numbers to users. As I know we have two ways to assign the phone numbers to users.
Option 1: Set-CsUser -Identity "xxx@X .xxx" -OnPremLineURI TEL:+2149967389 -EnterpriseVoiceEnable $true -HostVocieMail $true
Option 2: We can log in MS admin-->phone number portal to generate the phone number automatically, then assign to the users.

Question1: What is the difference between these two options?

Question2: If we choose option1, we can assign random phone numbers to users? But we can not see these numbers in phone numbers portal, right?

Queation3: If we choose option2, how do the phone numbers generate automatically? do we need to provide the service phone numbers(which are authenticated by PSTN) to MS teams in advance? And then the phone numbers will generate from these "service phone numbers" which we provided?

Question4: As I know, if we choose option2, we just select the location, how many numbers we need, and then MS Teams will generate these numbers, but we can not choose which phone numbers we need to assign, right?

Question5: Can we share the phone number with Cisco UCM? For example, we have IP phone register in CUCM with DID number 2149961234, can we use this DID number as a phone number in MS Teams? Because if we call outbound to PSTN, carriers will check the calling number. So we need to assign the same number to MS Teams to make sure they can call outside.

Best Regards,
Thanks.

Answer 1

@Bai, Andy ,

Due to the limitation of comments, I reply your questions as a new answer here.

Question 1. I am confused about where do these numbers come from? Comes from Carriers?

These phone numbers are from Microsoft.

Question 2 . About Qestion5: I mean CUCM IP phone and MS Teams Client use the same number. Because we are using the same carriers and when we call outbound to PSTN, carriers will check the calling number. So that is why I wanna assign the same number to both CUCM and MS Teams.

I think that you want to assign the phone number from your own telephony carrier to users, right? After that, users can place or receive PSTN calls from Teams client.

Please note that in the Teams client, the dial pad enables users to access Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) functionality. The following image captured from this official document shows the requirements for dial pad to show:

Besides, to ensure incoming calls land in the Teams client, users must be in Teams Only mode.

Question 3. Option 1 and Option 2 have the same function, which can assign phone numbers to users. In which kind of the scenario we can choose the option1 or option2? Can you share some details?

Option 1 is recommended to use for Direct Routing. Option 2 is used for Calling Plan.

Question 4. If we choose option 1 to assign one phone number to a user, it will consume a license, right? If so, where can we check the consumption?

It will use Phone System license. Before running option 1, you should assign Phone System license in Microsoft 365 admin center. You can check the consumption of license from Microsoft 365 admin center > Billing: Licenses > Subscriptions as below:

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Answer 2

@Bai, Andy ,

Question1: What is the difference between these two options?

The command can modify not only the phone number but many other related user account attributes. From Microsoft Teams admin center > Voice: Phone numbers, we can only generate phone numbers and assign to users.

Question2: If we choose option1, we can assign random phone numbers to users? But we can not see these numbers in phone numbers portal, right?

Yes, by this command, you can assign random phone number to users even if this phone number is not in the phone number portal.

Question3: If we choose option2, how do the phone numbers generate automatically? do we need to provide the service phone numbers(which are authenticated by PSTN) to MS teams in advance? And then the phone numbers will generate from these "service phone numbers" which we provided?

For Direct Routing, the phone number is from your own telephony carrier. So, we cannot generate it automatically from Microsoft Teams admin center.
The command in option 1 is used to manage user’s phone number online. Just follow the 4 steps to configure Direct Routing, it is unnecessary to provide phone number in advance. The following image shows the evidence:

Question4: As I know, if we choose option2, we just select the location, how many numbers we need, and then MS Teams will generate these numbers, but we cannot choose which phone numbers we need to assign, right?

The option 2 is to request new phone numbers by the location. After you get these phone numbers, you can assign the specific phone number to users. Choose the specific phone number > Click Edit > Then, you can assign phone number to users. The following image shows the process for reference:

Question5: Can we share the phone number with Cisco UCM?

Which phone number do you want to share with Cisco UCM? If you mean the phone number from Microsoft, you cannot because the purpose for Direct Routing is to use your own telephony carrier for PSTN connectivity.