Microsoft Teams Direct Routing & Operator Connect
Bring PSTN calling into Microsoft Teams through Dollu’s certified SBCs or Operator Connect - numbers in 110+ countries, migration from Calling Plans, compliance recording, and Zoom Phone BYOC on the same trunks.
110+
Countries with numbers
99.99%
Voice core availability
600+
Carrier interconnects
What is Microsoft Teams Direct Routing & Operator Connect?
Microsoft Teams Direct Routing connects the Teams Phone System to the public telephone network through a session border controller certified by Microsoft, so users make and receive external calls from the Teams client on any device with their normal business number. Dollu operates the certified SBCs, the SIP trunks and the carrier interconnects behind them, provisions the numbers and handles the PowerShell configuration in your tenant, so your team keeps Teams as its only user-facing application and never has to run telephony infrastructure.
For organisations that would rather not touch PowerShell at all, Operator Connect lets an administrator select Dollu as an operator inside the Teams admin centre, order numbers per country and assign them to users in the same portal they use for everything else. Direct Routing remains the better fit where you need custom dial plans, analogue devices, contact-centre integration, survivable branch appliances or countries not yet covered by Operator Connect, and many customers run both models in one tenant.
Numbers are where a carrier partner earns its place. We provide local, national, mobile and toll-free numbers in more than 110 countries, port existing ranges wherever regulation allows and manage the address registration, emergency-services routing and regulatory paperwork per country. Migrations from Microsoft Calling Plans, legacy PBXs or another Direct Routing provider are run as a phased project by our engineers, typically per site or per country, with dual-running so no user loses inbound calls on cut-over day.
The same SBC estate serves Zoom Phone Bring Your Own Carrier and other UC platforms, which matters for groups that run Teams in one region and Zoom in another, or that are mid-transition. Compliance recording for MiFID II, FCA, SEBI or internal policy is delivered through certified recording partners integrated at the SBC or via the Teams recording API, and the whole service - SBCs, trunks, numbers, recording - is monitored by our 24×7 NOC with a 99.99% availability commitment on the voice core.
SIP trunk topology: from your PBX to the PSTN.
Why choose Dollu for teams direct routing.
The advantages of buying from a carrier that owns its network, interconnects and operations - rather than a reseller.
Cut PSTN cost against Calling Plans
Per-user trunk pricing with pooled minutes and wholesale international rates typically undercuts Microsoft Calling Plans, particularly for international-heavy or multi-country tenants.
One operator for every country
Numbers, porting, emergency calling and regulatory registration in 110+ countries from a single contract, instead of stitching together Calling Plans where available and local carriers everywhere else.
Nothing new for users to learn
Calls simply appear in Teams on desktop, mobile, web and certified Teams phones. Users keep their numbers, contacts and workflow; the change is invisible to them.
Regulatory and recording obligations covered
Compliance recording, emergency-services routing, caller-ID rules and lawful-intercept obligations are handled per country by a licensed carrier rather than left to the IT team.
Move at your own pace
Run Teams alongside your existing PBX, Calling Plans or Zoom Phone during migration. Users move in waves, and the SBC estate keeps everything interoperable until the last site is done.
Capabilities in detail.
Everything included with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing & Operator Connect - the platform features, options and controls you get from day one.
- 01
Managed certified SBCs
Geo-redundant pairs of Microsoft-certified session border controllers in Dollu PoPs, TLS 1.2+ signalling and SRTP media to Microsoft, media bypass support, and health monitoring with automatic failover between sites.
- 02
Operator Connect
Dollu appears as an operator in the Teams admin centre; administrators order numbers per country, assign them to users and see usage without PowerShell, with a shared-responsibility SLA between Dollu and Microsoft.
- 03
Global number provisioning
Local, national, mobile and toll-free numbers in more than 110 countries, allocated in our portal or the Teams admin centre, with address registration and regulatory documents handled per country.
- 04
Migration and porting service
Phased migrations from Calling Plans, on-premise PBXs or another Direct Routing carrier, with number porting, dual-running, dial-plan and voice-routing policy configuration and hypercare after each cut-over.
- 05
Compliance recording
Recording of Teams calls and meetings through certified partners integrated at the SBC via SIPREC or the Teams recording API, with policy-based capture, retention, legal hold and export for MiFID II, FCA, SEBI and internal requirements.
- 06
Emergency calling
Emergency-services routing configured per country, including dynamic emergency calling in Teams with location information where regulation requires, and testing before go-live.
- 07
Hybrid and coexistence
Interworking between Teams and legacy PBXs, analogue devices via ATAs, survivable branch appliances for sites that must keep calling during WAN failure, and contact-centre integration through certified connectors.
- 08
Zoom Phone BYOC and other platforms
The same SBCs and trunks provide PSTN to Zoom Phone via BYOC and to Webex Calling and other SIP-capable platforms, so multi-platform estates share one number inventory and one carrier.
- 09
Monitoring and analytics
Portal dashboards for call volumes, quality and SBC health, feeds into Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard, per-country usage against bundles and CDR export for chargeback.
How it works.
From first conversation to live traffic - a tracked, engineer-led onboarding with a named owner at every step.
- Step 01
Scope
We review your tenant, licences, countries, number ranges, PBX estate and recording or contact-centre requirements, and recommend Direct Routing, Operator Connect or a mix per country.
- Step 02
Connect
Your tenant is paired with our SBCs or Dollu is enabled as an operator in the Teams admin centre. Voice routes, dial plans and emergency policies are configured and tested with pilot users.
- Step 03
Migrate
Numbers are ported or migrated from Calling Plans site by site with dual-running. Users are enabled for Teams Phone in waves and legacy trunks are decommissioned as each site stabilises.
- Step 04
Run
The NOC monitors SBCs, trunks and call quality 24×7. Add numbers or countries in the portal at any time; your account manager reviews usage and bundles quarterly.
Calling Plans, Operator Connect or Direct Routing.
Three ways to put PSTN calling into Microsoft Teams. The right one depends on how many countries you cover, what you already own and how much control you want over cost.
| Dimension | Microsoft Calling Plans | Operator Connect | Direct RoutingDollu recommends for global estates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who is the carrier | Microsoft | A Microsoft-certified operator such as Dollu, integrated through the Teams admin centre | Dollu, via a certified session border controller paired with your tenant |
| Countries covered | Limited to Microsoft’s calling-plan markets | Countries where the operator holds certification | Any country where Dollu can deliver numbers and termination - 110+ for numbers, A–Z for outbound |
| Set-up | Assign licences and numbers in the Teams admin centre | Enable the operator in the admin centre; numbers assigned from the operator portal | SBC pairing plus voice-routing policies; Dollu hosts and manages the SBC |
| Existing infrastructure | Nothing reused - PBXs, trunks and analogue devices are retired | Limited - cloud-only estates fit best | Keeps SIP trunks, legacy PBXs, contact centres, analogue devices and SIP phones alongside Teams |
| Numbers and porting | Microsoft porting; limited toll-free and number types | Operator porting; number types per operator and country | Full range - local, national, toll-free and mobile in 110+ countries; porting handled by Dollu |
| Cost model | Per user Microsoft plan with bundled minutes | Per user operator plan; usage per minute | Per user or per channel plus per-second usage on the A–Z rate deck |
| Best for | Small deployments in a handful of supported countries | Mid-size, cloud-only estates that value simplicity over cost control | Global estates, contact centres, hybrid PBX environments and organisations that want carrier pricing |
Dollu supports both Operator Connect and Direct Routing, and many customers run the two side by side - Operator Connect for simple offices, Direct Routing where the contact centre and legacy estate live.
Who uses this and why.
Typical deployments across carriers, enterprises, platforms and contact centres.
Multinationals standardising on Teams
Replace a patchwork of country carriers and PBXs with Teams Phone and one operator supplying numbers, porting and emergency calling everywhere.
Regulated financial services
Teams calling with certified compliance recording, retention and legal hold for MiFID II, FCA, SEBI and Dodd-Frank obligations.
PBX consolidation programmes
Retire end-of-life PBXs and ISDN over a multi-year plan while keeping analogue devices, branch survivability and interworking during the transition.
MSPs and Microsoft partners
Wholesale Direct Routing and Operator Connect with multi-tenant portal, APIs and white-label options for partners delivering Teams voice to their customers.
Zoom Phone and mixed-platform estates
One carrier and one number inventory across Teams, Zoom Phone BYOC and Webex Calling for groups running more than one UC platform.
Technical & commercial specifications.
Key parameters at a glance. Ask us for the full service description and SLA document.
| Models | Direct Routing (certified SBC), Operator Connect, Zoom Phone BYOC, Webex Calling |
|---|---|
| SBC locations | Geo-redundant pairs at London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Ashburn, Mumbai, Singapore |
| Signalling and media | SIP over TLS 1.2+; SRTP; SILK, G.722, G.711, Opus; media bypass supported |
| Numbers | Local, national, mobile, toll-free in 110+ countries; porting managed |
| Emergency calling | Per-country routing; dynamic location in Teams where mandated; E911 in US |
| Recording | Certified compliance recording partners via SIPREC or Teams recording API |
| Licensing | Teams Phone Standard or E5; no Microsoft Calling Plan required |
| Capacity | 5 to 20,000+ users per tenant; pooled concurrent channels |
| Availability | 99.99% voice core SLA; SBC failover across PoPs |
| Support | 24×7 NOC; P1 response ≤ 15 min; named account manager |
How UC & Contact Centre is priced.
Cloud PBX, UCaaS and CCaaS are priced per seat per month with bundled or metered minutes; Teams Direct Routing per user; global numbers added at rental + usage.
We publish the model, not a public rate card - actual rates depend on destination, route class, volume and regulatory cost. See how every Dollu service is priced.
- Monthly or annual terms
- Metered or bundled minutes per seat
- Integrations and admin portal included
- Volume pricing above 100 seats
- Add global numbers at rental + usage
- Billing
- Seats invoiced monthly in advance; metered usage in arrears
- Commitment
- Monthly or annual; annual terms unlock better seat pricing
Teams Direct Routing - your questions answered.
The questions customers and carriers ask us most often before they interconnect. If yours is not here, our team answers within one business day.
Still have a question?
Ask our solutions teamRelated services.
Services customers commonly combine with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing & Operator Connect.
Put PSTN calling in Teams.
Send us your countries, user counts and current carrier set-up and we will recommend Direct Routing or Operator Connect per country with pricing and a migration timeline.
