Microsoft Teams Room Systems, MTRs, are excellent devices for joining Teams meetings. However, you’re not always going to be in a meeting when you need to make or receive a call on an MTR. It doesn’t always make sense to put a regular desk phone in the room or a speakerphone on the table. So what does the experience look like?

Receiving a call

Receiving a call is straightforward. First, you need to have a phone number assigned to the MTR, either through a Calling Plan or Direct Routing. Note that you don’t need to assign a phone number to your MTR if you’ll only use it in meetings. When the number is called, the device rings, and you hit the answer button and the call uses the MTR speakers and Microphone. This probably isn’t desirable if you’re in a meeting, so you can have a look at turning on Busy-on-busy.

Placing a call

Placing a call on an MTR is different than on a regular Teams phone. The major difference is that the call is placed via the audio conference bridge. This has two implications. First, an outbound call will consume minutes from your outbound conference minute pool. Second, the call will appear to be from the conference bridge number and not any DID that you’ve assigned to the MTR.