Soft Phone - MS Teams Calling

UNC System's New Soft Phone Capability with MS Teams Calling

Frequently Asked Questions

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MS Teams Calling General Info

The Microsoft Teams desktop or mobile app will work as your main means of making calls inside and outside of the organization. We will no longer need physical phones plugged into the wall to communicate.  The desktop and mobile apps allow for dialing and answering calls.  The Teams Calling feature will allow for all the normal business operations of a phone system. We will continue on to Step 2 of our 2 step process of migrating to MS Teams Calling.  Step one was the move to AT&T which did not change any functionality of the current system.  This is the second step which will change our traditional way doing business with phones.  In this step we will port our numbers to Microsoft Teams Calling.  All the users will access their phone via the Teams app to make calls and do all the traditional calling functions.  We have our port date scheduled for November (official day will be communicated).  Much like the first port we will announce the port date the carrier provides us and then we will verify the date, communicate a reminder of the port date, and then communicate when the port has completed.  After completion of the port users will be able to access all the phone capabilities within the teams app (desktop and/or mobile)

Most folks by now have the MS Teams application installed on their computer.  If you do not you can submit a ticket to help@northcarolina.edu with subject “MS Teams App Install” and the end user services team can help to get you installed and running.  The mobile app can be downloaded and setup from the apple store or android store.  There is a Calls Icon with a phone on the left hand side of the desktop app that will take you to the functionality to select an internal user to call or to navigate to a dial pad to make an external call.  Other functionality like voicemail, forwarding, delegation, transfer will also be available in the Calls section of the Teams app.  For reference on how to use features click the How-To tab.

What to Expect

Before Port

Before the port date users should determine which client(s) they wish to install to use MS Teams Calling.  Users can contact help@northcarolina.edu  with the subject “Microsoft Teams Install” if they do not have the Microsoft Teams client and need it installed.  On your mobile or tablet if you wish to install the MS Teams app you can download it from the apple store or android store for free by searching “Microsoft Teams”.  You will need to sign-in using your system office credentials.  The system office will be offering a Teams Calling training session with Microsoft prior to the port date.  During this training an overview on how to use the calling features will be demonstrated and questions will be answered by the Microsoft engineer.  Communications involving an invitation to the organization will be forthcoming.  

During the Port

During the port day the end users will not need to take any actions.  There will be a service disruption during this day while all the numbers are ported over to the Teams calling carrier.  There will be some users that are able to make and receive calls before others and there will also be folks that can receive calls but can’t make calls.  This is all normal behavior during the porting process.  Also please be aware that until the port is complete and UNC-CH removes our numbers from their database there could be chances of calls that go to the existing physical phones and some that go to the Teams Calling App.  The physical phones will no longer be of use after the port is over and UNC-CH has removed the numbers from their database.  The physical phones should also not be boxed and moved to the Dillon as they will be collected by UNC-CH Telephony.  All calls going forward will be made and received through the Microsoft Teams Calling app on your desktop or mobile device.  IT will communicate when the port has completed and the calling functionality is accessible.  

After the Port

Once IT has notified users the port has completed, users can then access the Teams app calling icon and configure their phone preferences. We ask that all users log out of the Teams app for desktop or mobile and log back in to make sure the new settings have taken hold.  They can setup call forwarding, voicemail, review the calling options, and setup a delegate.  If you have issues accessing your calling features in Teams please send a ticket to help@northcarolina.edu with subject “Teams Calling”