Even as Microsoft faces a new antitrust investigation in Europe over bundling Teams with Microsoft 365, the company has just announced a different sort of Teams bundle for the US, Canada, and UK customers.
The bundle combines Teams Essentials and Teams Phone into one package for a limited-time price. Teams Essentials launched in 2021 and is a stand-alone version of Microsoft's video conferencing and meeting service for small businesses. Teams Phone is a cloud-based phone solution, with different calling plans available from Microsoft or outside carriers.
In a blog post, Microsoft announced it is bundling Teams Essentials and Phone, along with a choice of calling plans, in NA and the UK with special promo prices from now until January 17, 2024. The bundle plans are available now directly from Microsoft.
The plans start at $8.05 a month per user, paid annually, with an operator calling plan. Users who already access Teams Essentials or Microsoft 365 can add Teams Phone to their subscription, again with a choice of calling plans, starting at $6 a month, per user.
The blog post included a statement from Mahendra Sekaran, Microsoft's Vice President, Product Management:
We are committed to ever improving the collaboration for hybrid teams and are excited to now give them world-class tools like Teams Essentials and Teams Phone in one easy to procure and easy to set up bundle. I'm incredibly proud of our continued innovation on Teams Phone in particular and we strive to delight our users every day. They depend on Teams Phone to run their business and interface with the world.
The blog post also mentions some new and upcoming Teams Phone features. One that's available now is shared calling, which will allow groups of Teams Phone users to access a shared phone number and calling plan. A feature that's coming soon is "click-to-call". Microsoft says:
Click-to-call makes it easy for customers to reach your sales and support teams directly from your web page or app. Developers can add, customize, and program the widget to connect customers to a specific Teams user, call queue, or auto attendant.
Teams Phone will also add Microsoft's Copilot generative AI feature in the near future.
