• Make calls to, and receive calls from, any phone number, using your laptop with full support for Lync-optimized PC peripherals like speakerphones or headsets. 
• Includes full support for IP desk phones with Lync Phone Edition

Get the calling features you need to stay in touch and stay productive wherever you go:

The first qualified Lync-to-phone provider is Jajah Voice for Office 365, with phone numbers currently available for the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK). Additional providers are currently under evaluation but there is no immediate timeline available.

IMPORTANT: Lync-to-phone is not available in organizations with a hybrid server/service deployment.

Your Lync-to-phone provider connects you to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). You can

• Re-use your existing phone numbers
• Get new local numbers
• Purchase domestic and international calling plans

IMPORTANT: Lync-to-phone service is billed separately from Office 365. You’ll receive two bills: one from Microsoft for Office 365, and one from your Lync-to-phone provider for telephone network connectivity.

Lync-to-phone is available with the following Office 365 service plans

Service Coverage

The first qualified Lync-to-phone provider is Jajah Voice for Office 365, with phone numbers currently available for the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK). US and UK numbers can be assigned to users in other countries, or used by businesses located in other countries, as long as those countries have Lync Online audio service available, and can provide a US or UK billing address.

Emergency services

All emergency calls are routed by your Lync-to-phone provider to a national emergency dispatch center. The dispatch center first determines if the caller is at the location of record for that phone number, or at another location, and if necessary, updates the callers location. The call is then connected to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (in the US) or British Telecom (in the UK). 

Lync-to-phone for Office 365 is a cloud-based voice solution that’s fully integrated with Lync Online and Exchange Online.  This makes your job as an admin much simpler: the network connectivity and routing has already been taken care of, and the Lync-to-phone service provider delivers full data-center resiliency.

Once you’ve contacted a Lync-to-phone provider and purchased new phone numbers—or arranged to have your existing phone numbers ported over—all you need to do as an admin is

1. Get the necessary licenses and assign them to users
2. If you’ve purchased new phone numbers, assign them to users
3. Set up your Lync-to-phone service provider in the Lync admin center
4. Set up an Exchange Unified Messaging dial plan and assign it to users

See Administering Lync-to-phone for details.

Signaling and Media Flow

Signaling for call setup and control flows between the Lync client and the Lync Online infrastructure. Call media flows directly between the Lync client endpoint and the target of the call, as shown in the following figures.

In calls to or from the traditional telephone network, media flows between the Lync client and the Lync-to-phone provider’s PSTN gateway.

Figure: PSTN call flow

In a conference call, as shown in the figure below, media flows between Lync clients, PSTN callers, and the Lync Online conferencing server.

Figure: Conferencing call flow

Planning for Lync-to-phone

Review and complete all the Lync Online configuration tasks. Of particular importance:

• You’ll need to make changes to your firewall and domain name servers for Lync and Lync-to-phone to work correctly.
• For best audio quality, order “Optimized for Lync” audio devices like speakerphones and headsets.

IMPORTANT: If you plan to re-use your existing phone numbers with Lync-to-phone, make sure you complete the configuration steps in the following section before the ported numbers are activated.

Use the Office 365 portal to complete all of your Lync-to-phone configuration tasks:

• Assign licenses and phone numbers
• Access the Lync Online Control Panel and Exchange Control Panel

Figure: Office 365 admin home page

Once you’ve set up Office 365 and purchased Lync-to-phone service, complete these tasks to get up and running:

Figure: Lync-to-phone set up overview

Learn more:

• Download: Lync-to-phone Setup Checklist
• Video: Configuring Lync-to-phone for Office 365
• Video: Configuring Lync-to-phone with Exchange Online Unified Messaging for Office 365

Where to go for support

Both Microsoft and your Lync-to-phone provider are available to support their respective services.  In general, Microsoft should be contacted first for support unless there is a problem specific to PSTN calling or the associated billing.

Contact Microsoft for these types of issues:

• Error when assigning phone number
• Call features not working – transfer, forward, simultaneous ring
• Exchange Voice Messaging not working
• Exchange Auto Attendant and Outlook Voice Access not working
• Audio Quality issues

Contact your Lync-to-phone provider first with these kinds of issues

• Incoming calls not completing
• Outgoing calls not completing
• Caller ID issues
• Call transfer to a number fails and the user is always returned to the original conversation
• Call forward to a number fails with a disconnect tone
• Gets disconnected in the middle of the call
• Keypad commands (DTMF signals) aren’t recognized
• Billing questions