Skype for Business Online PSTN Conferencing: Why it’s such a Big Deal

With an industry wide push to Software as a Service (SaaS) models, organisations want to be able to simply and easily add additional ways people can access their conferences, without adding to on-premises systems or overall complexity.

For organisations already using Skype for Business Online, they would be used to the ease and simplicity of creating a Skype for Business Online Meeting:

 

 

For anyone using the Skype for Business client for conferencing, they can simply click on the Join Skype Meeting link, and their client will automatically open and join the conference. One click to join. For anyone that clicks the link that doesn’t have the Skype for Business client, they are automatically directed to the Skype for Business Web App, where they can also participate in the meeting, enjoying Multi-view video, desktop and power point sharing, and all the other capabilities a full desktop client user would enjoy:

 

 

Whist these two methods provide a great experience for conference participants, sometimes joining from a standard telephone over the PSTN network is unavoidable. How do we add this capability to Skype for Business Online?

This is where Skype for Business Online Dialin Conferencing can help

To add the ability for users to dial into your Skype for Business Online meetings, it’s as simple as adding the prerequisite licensing to your Office 365 tenant, and enabling for your users.

What licenses do I need?

If you want to use dial-in conferencing, you have two options:

• Purchase and assign anEnterprise E5 license that already contains the Skype for Business PSTN Conferencing add-on license. See, Assign or unassign a PSTN conferencing license to a user.

• Purchase and assign theSkype for Business PSTN Conferencing add-on license to your existing Enterprise E1 or Enterprise E3 licensed tenant

Once you have the required licensing, enable it for your users from the Office 365 Portal:

Now when I create a Skype for Business Online Meeting, participants can now dial in from a phone number I choose, or from dozens of countries automatically made available. In this case, I configured a dedicated Melbourne PSTN number to be my default:

However, what if users want to dial in from other countries without incurring international toll costs? Click on Find a local number, and you will be presented with dozens of numbers from countries around the globe, all as part of the PSTN conferencing service:

Here’s a full list of countries that are automatically available for dialin conferencing:

Country/region	Capital or major city
Argentina	Buenos Aires
Australia	Sydney
Austria	Vienna
Bahrain	Manama
Belgium	Brussels
Brazil	Sao Paulo
Bulgaria	Sofia
Canada	Toronto
Chile	Santiago
China	Beijing
Columbia	Bogota
Costa Rica	Phone numbers aren’t linked to a specific city or location
Croatia	Zagreb
Cyprus	Nicosia
Czech Republic	Prague
Denmark	Copenhagen
Dominican Republic	Santiago
El Salvador	San Salvador
Estonia	Tallinn
Finland	Helsinki
France	Paris
Georgia	Tbilisi
Germany	Frankfurt
Greece	Athens
Hong Kong	Hong Kong
Hungary	Budapest
India	Mumbai
Ireland	Dublin
Israel	Tel Aviv
Italy	Milan
Japan	Tokyo
Latvia	Phone numbers aren’t linked to a specific city or location
Lithuania	Vilnius
Luxembourg	Luxembourg
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur
Malta	Valletta
Mexico	Mexico City
Netherlands	Amsterdam
New Zealand	Wellington
Norway	Oslo
Pakistan	Karachi
Panama	Panama
Peru	Lima
Philippines	Manila
Poland	Warsaw
Portugal	Lisbon
Romania	Phone numbers aren’t linked to a specific city or location
Russia	Moscow
Singapore	Singapore
Slovak Republic	Bratislava
Slovenia	Ljubljana
South Africa	Cape Town
South Korea	Seoul
Spain	Madrid
Sri Lanka	Phone numbers aren’t linked to a specific city or location
Sweden	Stockholm
Switzerland	Zurich
Taiwan	Taipei
Thailand	Bangkok
Turkey	Istanbul
Ukraine	Phone numbers aren’t linked to a specific city or location
United Kingdom (UK)	London
United States (U.S.)	Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City

 

To find out more about Skype for Business’s PSTN Conferencing and the best options for your organisation, contact Insync Technology on 1300 652 207 or email us at info@insynctechnology.com.au