Direct Routing- what is it, and why do I need it?

In 2024, businesses are reliant on all-in-one communications platforms to keep their employees and customers connected, and Microsoft Teams leads the pack. The Teams platform continues to see hyper-growth. Data shows that Microsoft Teams has more than 320 million daily active users, adding over 50 million users from 2022 to 2023.

Microsoft Teams was built to be a collaboration tool—not a fully-fledged telephony product. In order to expand its use, Microsoft started to partner with different carriers and aggregators in many countries to gain basic connectivity to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This resulted in Direct Routing as an alternative to basic calling plans.

Direct Routing offers a flexible alternative to Teams calling plans

As the Teams platform has expanded in the past 5 years, many businesses love the collaboration it allows but aren't so thrilled about the restrictive calling plans and poor quality. While the calling plans from Microsoft offer basic PSTN connectivity, they can leave users open to costly calling on a patchwork network with lots of interconnects-leaving calls open to latency, lag, and jitter- which affects the customer experience.

Direct Routing overview

Direct Routing describes creating a PSTN connection to Microsoft Teams users so that they can make and receive external phone calls on any device using Teams. Through Direct Routing, MS Teams users can leverage their existing SIP connections and numbers on the Teams platform.

With Direct Routing, enterprises can integrate carrier-grade telephony into the MS Teams platform. Along with higher quality calling and increased reliability, companies can also gain more control over their call routes, numbers, and SIP trunks.

Who benefits most from Direct Routing?

As the Teams platform has expanded in the last year, many businesses love the collaboration it allows but aren't so thrilled about the restrictive call plans and poor quality. For large enterprises or globally distributed companies, many require an extra PBX with more extensive dialing plans alongside their Teams account, adding more vendors, more cost, and more headaches.

Direct Routing is a great solution for large enterprises that use Microsoft Teams to collaborate with both internal and external stakeholders. Why? Enterprises with a large, global workforce will gain the most benefit from integrating teams with a telephony provider.

Direct Routing enhances call quality

Microsoft Teams Calling Plans don’t have a direct line to the PSTN, and therefore rely on multiple carriers and aggregators to connect calls. This can lead to some less than great call quality over the Teams network. Partnering with a carrier or direct-to-carrier provider for telephony means fewer hops across networks, reducing call quality issues.

Direct Routing offers cost-effective calling

The cost of Microsoft Teams calling plans can start to snowball for companies with more than a couple of hundred people—especially when team members are making calls to destinations outside of the US and Europe. Enterprises with a global presence should consider partnering with a global VoIP provider that can offer better rates for global numbers and calling to reduce costs by up to 40%.

For smaller companies, the cost differential may not be as extreme, but switching to a pay as you go solution can result in savings.

Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams with Telnyx

So what’s the difference choosing Telnyx for Direct Routing over other SIP providers? Let's take a closer look.

High-quality voice on a private network

With Telnyx, you'll gain access to a global, Tier-1 voice network, resulting in improved voice quality for crystal clear calls every time. With intuitive tooling, Telnyx also gives businesses greater control over call routing, SIP trunk creation and phone numbers. In addition, Telnyx provides customers with a Microsoft-certified SBC for no extra cost, making implementing secure communications over Teams a breeze.

Scale globally with an international carrier

Through Direct Routing, Telnyx empowers businesses to scale communications quickly all around the globe thanks to our APIs and Tier 1 interconnects. Enterprises can leverage these existing relationships through Teams to expand thier global footprint, without compromising on communications.

Want to try it out? MS Teams Direct Routing is now live in the Mission Control Portal. If you’re a new customer you can sign up to the self-service portal.

If you’re an existing customer- head on over to our Developer Center where you’ll find our Direct Routing setup guide for Microsoft Teams.

If you have any questions or need some help setting up our teams are always here to help, contact us anytime.