Telephone Dial-in with MS Teams

If you need to provide a phone number for people to call in via telephone then you will need to be licensed for this as there is a monthly cost.  Ideally we'd like to avoid this unless there is a true need.  Most people have SmartPhones these days and if they simply download the Microsoft Teams App they can easily participate without needing to dial-in via the phone system network; and they will have a much better experience and won't have to punch in phone numbers or meeting ID numbers.  

Non-Christman attendees can simply install the Teams App (there is no charge) and then be more of a part of the meeting.  The audio will be better and they can view screen sharing and video.  They do not need to create an account or anything.  Once they install the app they can quite out.  Then to join a meeting, they would tap the Join link via an email or a meeting invite from you.  This will launch Teams and they can simply tap the [Join as a Guest] button, and provide their name.  That's it!  

If you feel you still need a dial-in number then you will have to put in a Help Desk ticket request.  Once you are licensed, all future meetings you create will have the call-in information text included.  See below for an example.  

The phone number is the same number that everyone gets. The "magic" is that when you create meetings now and in the future it will provide the number along with a "Phone Conference ID" number. This ID number is what callers punch-in after they call the telephone number. This ID number is different for every meeting you create. However, if it is a recurring meeting, then in that case, they would use the same ID each meeting.

Example Scenario

In the example above, if someone wants to join this meeting via telephone, the would call 517-325-9971.
They will hear this message:  " Welcome to the audio conferencing center, please enter a conference ID followed by #"
They should then type in the Phone Conference ID number provided in your meeting invitation. 

Note - on a Smart Phone, tapping the phone number link in the invite will call the number, wait for it to answer, and then automatically punch-in the ID#.  That is what the two commas and numbers are for in the link.  

Welcome Email / Using your PIN

After you get a license assigned you will receive an email from Microsoft that, as of February 2021, has this subject line "You now have Audio Conferencing for Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business Online – Here is your dial-in information and PIN"

This email will include an Audio Conferencing PIN.  This PIN is required to start the meeting if YOU will also be dialing in via telephone.  However, it is highly recommended that you use the Teams app if calling from your Smart Phone.  If you DO find yourself in a conference room that only has a basic speaker-phone you may need to use this option, and the PIN. 

Note - any and all previously scheduled meetings (even recurring meetings) will NOT be enabled with the telephone audio option.  You will have to cancel and re-create those meetings and generate new Teams Join info to enable telephone dial-in.