License Requirement for Teams Voice

Question

License Requirement for Teams Voice

Anonymous

Hello

Please i need your help on this issue.

We would like to know License Requirement for Teams Voice.

We have direct routing configured. We also configured auto-attendant and some other things. Now, I know that every user who wants to receive calls or make them, needs to be licensed with "Teams Phone Standard" license. And apps, like auto-attendant need to be licensed with "Teams Phone Resource Account".

Can these two (Licensed User and Licensed App) forward calls from direct routing to users who don't have any of the licenses and are not Enterprise Voice Enabled?

Alexis-NG 18,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-15T17:08:23.2866667+00:00

Hi @BNI,

Hope things are running smoothly on your end. Following up on the support thread we've been working on. I hope the information I shared in my previous answer resolve the issue you were facing. If you are still facing the same issue or need assistance with anything else, kindly respond to this email, and I will be happy to help. We want to make sure everything is working as expected and that your experience remains uninterrupted.

Thank you for your patience and understanding throughout the troubleshooting process.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Alexis-NG 18,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-17T17:32:03.6766667+00:00

Hi @BNI,

I hope you are having a great day so far.

It was truly a pleasure working with you on this thread. I understand that you might have other important matters at hand to attend to and do not have convenient time for this at the moment. If you're still encountering any problems or have run into new challenges, please let me know which steps you're currently stuck on and happy to provide further help whenever you need it.

If you have any further questions, feel free to tag me in your reply so I can assist you directly.

Looking forward to your update.

1 answer

Your answer

Alexis-NG 18,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-15T17:08:23.2866667+00:00

Hi @BNI,

Hope things are running smoothly on your end. Following up on the support thread we've been working on. I hope the information I shared in my previous answer resolve the issue you were facing. If you are still facing the same issue or need assistance with anything else, kindly respond to this email, and I will be happy to help. We want to make sure everything is working as expected and that your experience remains uninterrupted.

Thank you for your patience and understanding throughout the troubleshooting process.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Alexis-NG 18,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-17T17:32:03.6766667+00:00

Hi @BNI,

I hope you are having a great day so far.

It was truly a pleasure working with you on this thread. I understand that you might have other important matters at hand to attend to and do not have convenient time for this at the moment. If you're still encountering any problems or have run into new challenges, please let me know which steps you're currently stuck on and happy to provide further help whenever you need it.

If you have any further questions, feel free to tag me in your reply so I can assist you directly.

Looking forward to your update.

Answer 1

Hi @BNI,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum.

Regarding your question about Teams Voice license requirements, I’d be happy to share detailed information along with helpful resources to give you a clearer understanding.

According to Teams Phone licensing, there is certain requirements for licensed users and licensed apps:

Licensed Users: Any user who wants to make or receive PSTN calls via Direct Routing must have a Teams Phone Standard license (formerly Phone System) and be Enterprise Voice enabled. This is mandatory for PSTN connectivity through Direct Routing or Operator Connect.
Licensed Apps (Auto Attendants & Call Queues): These require a Teams Phone Resource Account license. This ensures the resource account is properly identified and functions correctly, even if it doesn’t have a phone number assigned. Organizations with Teams Phone subscriptions get 25 free Resource Account licenses, plus one additional license for every 10 Teams Phone user licenses.

With forwarding calls to unlicensed users, auto attendants and call queues can route calls to users, voicemail, or external numbers. However, if the destination user is not licensed for Teams Phone and not Enterprise Voice enabled, they cannot receive PSTN calls. The call will fail because PSTN connectivity requires the user to have the Phone System capability enabled.

Forwarding to an unlicensed user works only for internal Teams calls (VoIP), not PSTN calls. PSTN calls routed via Direct Routing or Operator Connect require the target user to have the proper license and Enterprise Voice enabled.

This Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account licenses details why Auto Attendants and Call Queues require a Teams Phone Resource Account license, even if no phone number is assigned.

Furthermore, in Plan for Teams Auto attendants and Call queues – Microsoft Learn:

Microsoft announced that Calling Plan licenses on resource accounts will no longer support outbound PSTN calls on behalf of Auto Attendants or Call Queues. Instead, a Pay-As-You-Go license will be required for these scenarios. This affects:

Outbound PSTN calls made by Auto Attendants or Call Queues.
Callback PSTN calls initiated from Call Queues. If these licenses aren’t assigned, outbound calls will fail.

User's image

In conclusion, the answer for your question is no, licensed apps (Auto Attendant/Call Queue) cannot forward PSTN calls to users who lack Teams Phone Standard and Enterprise Voice. Those users can only receive internal Teams calls. For PSTN call routing, the destination must be properly licensed and enabled for Enterprise Voice.

You can read more information about call routing and direct routing configuration:

Configure Direct Routing – Microsoft Learn

This document explains how Direct Routing works, including enabling users for voice and PSTN connectivity.

Routing calls with Auto attendants and Call queues – Microsoft Learn

This shows how calls are routed and the requirement that the destination user must be voice-enabled (licensed for Teams Phone).

Note: Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

I hope this information is helpful. Please review these documents and let me know if they address your needs. If not, I’ll be happy to work with you to find a solution.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I'm looking forward to your reply.

If the answer is helpful, click "Accept Answer" and vote positively. If you have more questions about this answer, click "Comment".

Note: Follow the steps in our documentation to enable email notifications if you want to receive email notifications related to this topic.

User image