"Can Microsoft Teams replace our phone system?" It's one of the most common questions we get. And the answer is: yes, for most organizations Microsoft Teams can fully take over the role of a traditional phone system — often with more features and lower costs.
Your team already works in Teams every day for chat and meetings. With Microsoft Teams Phone, you add full business telephony on top, so a single platform carries all your communication. In this article we explain how Teams works as a phone system, which PBX features you get, how it compares to a classic PBX and what it costs.
What does "Microsoft Teams as a phone system" mean?
A traditional phone system (a PBX) is what routes incoming and outgoing calls across your organization: menus, transfers, queues and voicemail. It used to be a physical box in the server room; later it moved to the cloud.
With Teams Phone, Microsoft Teams itself becomes your phone system. The entire call flow — from the moment someone calls to the call reaching the right employee — runs inside Microsoft 365. No separate hardware, no standalone phone system, no second vendor. You manage everything in one place and employees call from the Teams app on desktop, laptop and mobile.
Traditional PBX vs. Microsoft Teams
| Traditional PBX | Microsoft Teams as a phone system | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Physical PBX or separate cloud PBX | None — runs in Microsoft 365 |
| Devices | Fixed desk phones | Teams app on laptop, desktop, mobile (+ optional deskphones) |
| Management | Separate admin environment | Microsoft Teams Admin Center |
| Remote/hybrid work | Often difficult or extra cost | Standard — one number, reachable anywhere |
| Vendors | Telecom + IT separated | One integrated platform |
| Call costs | Fixed provider rates | Up to 40% lower via Direct Routing |
The big difference is integration. With a traditional PBX, telephony and IT are separate worlds — separate contracts, separate support. With Teams everything sits on the same digital foundation: calling, chatting, meeting and collaboration in one application.
Which PBX features does Microsoft Teams offer?
Teams Phone delivers all the features you expect from a modern business phone system:
- Menus (Auto Attendant / IVR) — "press 1 for sales, 2 for support". Fully configurable, including multilingual.
- Call Queues — incoming calls are distributed across a group of employees, with different routing methods.
- Transfers and delegated calling — transfer calls, have them picked up, or answer on behalf of a colleague.
- Voicemail — with transcription directly in Teams.
- Number porting — your existing business numbers are moved to Teams.
- One number, everywhere — incoming calls arrive on all your devices at once.
For most office organizations, this covers the full role of a phone system. If you want to know exactly how Teams connects to the phone network, read our explanation of calling via Microsoft Teams and the three connection methods (Direct Routing, Operator Connect and Calling Plans).
What does Microsoft Teams cost as a phone system?
The basis is a Teams Phone license from €8 per user per month, plus call costs. If you choose Direct Routing through Universal Cloud, you call up to 40% cheaper than with traditional telephony, while keeping full control over your numbers and rates.
Because you no longer need a physical PBX, you also drop the cost of hardware, maintenance and a separate telecom vendor. The full pricing breakdown, a cost example and the comparison between connection methods are on our business telephony in Microsoft Teams page.
When is Teams as a phone system not enough?
Teams Phone is ideal for office telephony, but there are two situations where you should look further:
- Business-critical reachability. Teams Phone with Calling Plans is a 100% Microsoft solution. During a Teams outage you would be unreachable by phone. If phone availability is business-critical, Direct Routing via uWebChat Voice offers more certainty: voice routing runs over a separate path, independent of Teams availability.
- Contact center or customer service. Do you have a reception, help desk or customer service with heavy inbound traffic, reporting and CRM integration? Then you need more than the native PBX features. In Teams contact center: the best solutions compared we lay out the options.
Migrating from your PBX to Teams
Migrating an existing phone system to Teams is a controlled process: port numbers, configure call flows, test and go live. A standard implementation takes 2 to 4 weeks, and Universal Cloud handles the complete transition with minimal impact on your reachability.
Want to know whether Microsoft Teams can replace your phone system? Book a free consultation — we're happy to think through the best route for your organization.
