SIP phones can now support Teams calls with Microsoft’s SIP Gateway

Rabia Noureen

Microsoft Teams phones

Microsoft has launched a new SIP Gateway service that lets organizations use existing third-party legacy SIP phones with Teams. The SIP Gateway Service, which has been in private preview since March, is now available for all business customers at no additional cost.

For those unfamiliar, SIP (session initiation protocol) phones are internet protocol telephones that let internet service providers integrate basic phone capabilities with email, web, live chat, and other features via IP networks.

Microsoft’s SIP gateway service now enables phones from select third-party manufacturers, including Poly, AudioCodes, and Cisco to utilize core calling functionality within Teams. This means that SIP phones now support making and receiving calls, dialing in/out to meetings, voicemail indicators, and device-based do not disturb mode.

Currently, the SIP Gateway service supports specific phone models, including Cisco IP Phones with MPP (Multiplatform Phones) firmware (6821, 7800 series, 8800 series), Poly VVX series (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600), AudioCodes 400 HD series, Yealink (T20 series, T30 series, T40 series, T50 series).

Microsoft is retiring Skype for Business Online, the infrastructure which supports third-party IP
(3PIP) based phone systems, on 31 July 2023. As a part of this change, the manufacturer advises those legacy systems users to migrate to Teams. This new SIP Gateway service should be good news for all Skype for Business customers who can now repurpose a wide range of legacy SIP phones. “No additional setup is needed for core functionality such as authentication, calling, calendar and presence, and meetings, using 3PIP phones,” the company explained.

The SIP Gateway solution will be available for all business users with Microsoft 365/Office 365 E5 licenses at no additional cost. For IT Admins, Microsoft has also published detailed documentation to help them configure and manage SIP Gateway for the whole organization, and we invite you to check out this support page for more details.