Microsoft 365 Business Voice to Teams Phone: The Migration Checklist
Microsoft 365 Business Voice was the small-business bundle of Teams Phone, a domestic calling plan and audio conferencing. It is not on Microsoft's October 2026 price list; what you buy today is Teams Phone with Calling Plan, or Teams Phone Standard with a calling plan or a carrier of your own. If your tenant still carries Business Voice licenses, numbers and call queues from that era, this is the checklist for moving them to the current SKUs without a gap in service, with every price at Microsoft list.
What replaced Business Voice: the SKUs on the October 2026 price list
Business Voice bundled three things: the Teams Phone system, a domestic calling plan with minutes, and audio conferencing dial-in. Microsoft now sells those as separate lines or as smaller bundles. Prices are Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list, per user per month on an annual commitment, with the month-to-month price in brackets; Microsoft bills them to you.
| SKU | Annual commitment | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Teams Phone with Calling Plan (United States) | $17.00 ($20.40) | Phone system plus a domestic calling plan: the closest match to Business Voice |
| Teams Phone Standard | $10.00 ($12.00) | Phone system only; add a calling plan, Operator Connect or Direct Routing |
| Teams Phone with pay-as-you-go calling (United States) | $13.00 ($15.60) | Phone system plus a number, with calls billed by Microsoft per minute |
| Domestic Calling Plan (customers in US, UK, Canada) | $8.00 ($9.60) | Minutes to add to Teams Phone Standard |
| Domestic and International Calling Plan | $24.00 ($28.80) | Domestic plus international minutes, to add to Teams Phone Standard |
| Teams Phone with domestic and international calling | $34.00 ($40.80) | Phone system plus both plans in one line |
| Teams Phone Resource Account | $0.00 | One per auto attendant or call queue |
| Teams Essentials with Phone | $12.00 ($14.40) | For users with no Microsoft 365 plan at all |
| Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing with dial-out to USA and Canada | $0.00 | Dial-in conferencing, included with most Teams-bearing plans |
The mapping rule: a Business Voice user who made and received calls on a Microsoft number becomes Teams Phone with Calling Plan at $17.00. A user who only needs an extension behind a carrier you bring becomes Teams Phone Standard at $10.00. A user who answers two calls a week becomes Teams Phone with pay-as-you-go calling at $13.00. Audio conferencing, which Business Voice charged for inside the bundle, now comes with the Microsoft 365 plan at $0.00 for dial-out to the United States and Canada.
Step 1: inventory licenses, numbers, resource accounts and devices
Before touching a license, write down what the tenant has. Five lists, each from one admin page:
- Licenses. Microsoft 365 admin center, Billing, Your products: every voice SKU, its quantity, its term, its renewal date and its billing frequency.
- Users with numbers. Teams admin center, Users: who has a phone number assigned, which calling policy applies, and who has a number but no call history in 90 days.
- Service numbers and resource accounts. Teams admin center, Voice, Resource accounts and Phone numbers: every auto attendant and call queue, the resource account behind it, the number on it, and whether the resource account carries a license.
- Emergency addresses. Teams admin center, Locations: every address, whether it has been validated, and which users and numbers are assigned to it.
- Devices. Teams admin center, Teams devices: desk phones, common area phones and conference devices, with firmware and sign-in account.
Pass condition for step 1: a spreadsheet with one row per user and one per service number, each with its current SKU and its target SKU from the table above. Users with a number and no calls in 90 days are candidates for pay-as-you-go or for no number at all.
Step 2: choose how calls reach the public network
Business Voice made the choice for you: Microsoft was the carrier. Teams Phone Standard gives you three options, and the choice is per tenant, not per user, in most 10-to-500-person organizations.
Microsoft Calling Plan. Microsoft supplies the numbers and the minutes. Simplest to run, bought on the same invoice as the rest of Microsoft 365, and the default for an office with ordinary calling volume: Teams Phone with Calling Plan at $17.00 covers it in one line.
Operator Connect. A participating carrier delivers service into Teams and bills the minutes; Microsoft bills Teams Phone Standard at $10.00. Right when a carrier you already use offers it, when you want local support for the telephony side, or when you need rates for countries Microsoft's plans do not cover well.
Direct Routing. Your own or a provider's session border controller connects Teams to any carrier. Right for analog devices, contact-center integrations, sites with a PBX that must stay for a while, and countries where the other two are not available.
The six questions that decide between them, and the costs at 10, 50 and 200 users, are in Teams Phone: Calling Plan vs Operator Connect vs Direct Routing. If the decision is Calling Plan, which it is for most former Business Voice tenants, the rest of this checklist applies without change.
Step 3: map every person and device to a SKU
| Who or what | Target SKU | Monthly list, annual commitment |
|---|---|---|
| Office user with a direct number on Microsoft's network | Teams Phone with Calling Plan | $17.00 |
| Office user with a direct number through Operator Connect or Direct Routing | Teams Phone Standard | $10.00 |
| Occasional caller (reception backup, part-time staff) | Teams Phone with pay-as-you-go calling | $13.00 plus per-minute charges |
| Frontline worker on Microsoft 365 F1 or F3 | Teams Phone Standard for frontline workers | $5.00 |
| Staff with no Microsoft 365 plan (contractors, a warehouse) | Teams Essentials with Phone | $12.00 |
| Users who call internationally every week | Teams Phone with domestic and international calling | $34.00 |
| Main number, department menus, call queues | Teams Phone Resource Account, one per auto attendant or call queue | $0.00 |
| Common area phone in a lobby or workshop | Teams Shared Devices license | Quoted on request |
Two rules keep the map honest. Nobody gets a calling plan they did not use in the last 90 days; the inventory in step 1 shows who that is. And every auto attendant and call queue gets its own resource account at $0.00, so there is no reason to leave a main number on a departed employee's user license.
Since April 2026 Microsoft lets an administrator assign up to 10 phone numbers to one user, across the Teams desktop, mobile and device clients, which removes the old workaround of a second user account for a person who answers a departmental line as well as their own.
Step 4: New Commerce Experience terms, and the order of operations
Voice SKUs are bought under the New Commerce Experience, where the annual commitment price in the table above is the price for a 12-month term and the month-to-month price is higher: Teams Phone Standard is $10.00 on an annual term and $12.00 month to month; Teams Phone with Calling Plan is $17.00 and $20.40. The term, the renewal date and the cancellation window are the levers, and they are explained in renewing Teams Phone and calling plans under NCE.
The order of operations that avoids a gap:
- Buy the new SKUs on a monthly term first, at the quantity in your step 3 map.
- Assign the new license to each user and resource account while the old one is still assigned; Teams keeps the number and the policies.
- Confirm in the Teams admin center that every user still shows a number and a voice-enabled state.
- Remove the old licenses from the users, then reduce or cancel the old subscriptions inside their cancellation window, or let them run to their renewal date if the window has passed.
- Once the new quantities have been stable for a billing cycle, switch the new SKUs to an annual term for the lower price.
Doing it in the other order, canceling first and buying second, is how a company loses its main number for an afternoon.
Step 5: numbers, emergency addresses and call flows
Numbers. A tenant moving within Microsoft keeps its numbers; nothing is ported. A tenant that also changes carrier, from Microsoft Calling Plan to Operator Connect or the reverse, moves numbers between providers, and the rule that matters is to keep the old service active until the new provider confirms the number is live. Never cancel a calling plan that still carries a number you intend to keep.
Emergency addresses. Every user with a number needs a validated emergency address, and users who move between the office and home need dynamic emergency calling, which maps the subnets and wireless access points of each site to its address so a call to 911 from a laptop reports where the laptop is. A tenant set up in the Business Voice years usually has one static address and no network map; fixing that is the Teams Phone call quality and E911 dynamic emergency calling service at $2,950 per project, and the reasons it is not optional in any connectivity model are in the connectivity article above.
Call flows. Rebuild, do not just carry over. An auto attendant with business hours, a holiday schedule, a menu, a dial-by-name option and an operator target; a call queue per team with presence-based routing, overflow and a shared voicemail; one resource account per voice app at $0.00; and a test call through every branch before the old flow is retired. Microsoft's June 2026 call transfer improvements on Windows and Mac reduce the steps to hand a call on, and line-key configuration for common area phones from the Teams admin center has been available since January 2026, so a lobby phone can have the main queue on a button.
Step 6: test, train and the first month
The test list, run by someone who is not the administrator: an inbound call to the main number through every menu option; an outbound call from a desk phone, the desktop app and the mobile app; a transfer between two users and a transfer to a queue; voicemail left and retrieved from Outlook; a 911 test call arranged with the provider from each site; and a call from a common area phone. Every row passes before the old subscription is canceled.
Training is one 30-minute session per team on the Teams calls view, transfer, call park and voicemail, and a one-page card for the receptionist on the queue and the attendant. The first month's monitoring is the call quality dashboard and the queue reports, with the inventory spreadsheet from step 1 reconciled against the licenses once more on day 30.
The services, fixed price and quoted in writing before work begins: Microsoft Teams Phone System setup, PSTN calling and cloud PBX at $3,500 per project for the design, numbers, policies, attendants, queues and emergency addresses; the managed Teams Phone service at $4 per user per month for the moves, adds and changes afterwards; and, for a tenant coming from another provider rather than from Business Voice, RingCentral, 8x8 or Zoom Phone to Teams Phone migration at $15 per user plus a $2,500 tenant fee.
What it costs for 25 users
A 25-person office, every user on a direct Microsoft number, one main number with an auto attendant and two call queues, at Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list, annual commitment:
| Line | Quantity | Monthly | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teams Phone with Calling Plan (United States) | 25 | $425.00 | $5,100.00 |
| Teams Phone Resource Account | 3 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Microsoft subtotal, billed by Microsoft | $425.00 | $5,100.00 | |
| Teams Phone System setup (one-time) | 1 | $3,500.00 | |
| Managed Teams Phone service | 25 | $100.00 | $1,200.00 |
Month to month instead of annual, the same 25 licenses are $510.00 a month, which is the price of keeping flexibility during the first billing cycle. Swap five users to pay-as-you-go calling at $13.00 and the Microsoft line falls to $405.00 a month; put five frontline staff on Microsoft 365 F3 with Teams Phone Standard for frontline workers at $5.00 and it falls further. The Teams Phone calculator does the arithmetic for your own counts and connectivity choice.
Frequently asked questions
Is Microsoft 365 Business Voice still available?
No. It is not on Microsoft's October 2026 price list. The closest current SKU is Teams Phone with Calling Plan at $17.00 per user per month on an annual commitment (Microsoft list price), which bundles the Teams Phone system with a domestic calling plan.
Which Teams Phone license replaces a Business Voice license?
Teams Phone with Calling Plan for users who made calls on a Microsoft number; Teams Phone Standard at $10.00 for users whose minutes come from a carrier through Operator Connect or Direct Routing; Teams Phone with pay-as-you-go calling at $13.00 for occasional callers.
Do I still need Audio Conferencing?
Not as a separate purchase for most tenants. Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing with dial-out to the United States and Canada is on the price list at $0.00 and comes with the Teams-bearing Microsoft 365 plans, where Business Voice used to carry it inside its bundle.
What is a resource account, and does it cost anything?
A resource account is the identity behind an auto attendant or a call queue, and the Teams Phone Resource Account license it needs is $0.00. One per voice app; assign the main number to it rather than to a person.
Will my phone numbers change when I move off Business Voice?
No, if you stay on Microsoft Calling Plan; the numbers belong to the tenant and follow the new license. If you change to Operator Connect or Direct Routing at the same time, the numbers move between providers, and the old plan stays active until the new provider confirms them live.
How long does the switch take?
Two to four weeks for a 25-to-100-user tenant: a week for the inventory and the SKU map, a week to buy and assign, and one or two weeks to rebuild attendants, queues and emergency addresses and to test. The license swap itself is an afternoon.
Sources
- Microsoft 365 roadmap, item 557716: Teams Phone user multi-line — Microsoft, launched April 2026, checked 2026-10-11
- Microsoft 365 roadmap, item 561028: Teams Phone call transfer improvements — Microsoft, launched June 2026, checked 2026-10-11
- Microsoft 365 roadmap, item 493320: Line key configuration on Teams Phone devices from Teams admin center — Microsoft, launched January 2026, checked 2026-10-11
- Microsoft Teams Phone Standard, Microsoft Teams Phone with Calling Plan and Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account — IT Partner subscription pages carrying Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list, checked 2026-10-11
Key takeaways
- Business Voice is not on Microsoft's October 2026 price list; the current lines are Teams Phone with Calling Plan at $17.00, Teams Phone Standard at $10.00 and Teams Phone with pay-as-you-go calling at $13.00 per user per month on an annual commitment, Microsoft list price.
- Inventory first: every voice license with its term and renewal date, every user with a number and their 90-day call history, every resource account, every emergency address and every device.
- Map each person to one SKU and give every auto attendant and call queue its own $0.00 resource account; never leave a main number on a person's license.
- Buy the new SKUs monthly, assign them alongside the old ones, confirm numbers, then remove the old licenses inside their NCE cancellation window; switch to annual once stable.
- A Business Voice-era tenant usually has one static emergency address and no network map; dynamic emergency calling per site is part of the move, not an extra.
- For 25 users on direct numbers, the Microsoft line is $425.00 a month on an annual term, with a one-time $3,500 setup and $4 per user per month for ongoing management.
Run the inventory from step 1 and bring the spreadsheet; the Microsoft Teams Phone System setup, PSTN calling and cloud PBX service maps the SKUs, rebuilds the call flows and emergency addresses, and swaps the licenses in the order that keeps your main number ringing, for $3,500 per project, quoted in writing before work begins.
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