In brief: Microsoft Teams Phone has reached 26 million PSTN users globally — up 30% in 20 months. For SA resellers, the growth signals strong demand for Direct Routing and Operator Connect deployments in 2026.
Microsoft Teams Phone has hit 26 million PSTN users globally — up 30% in just 20 months. But that headline number also reveals how much headroom remains. With only around 6% of Teams’ 350-million-plus user base currently on Teams Phone, the opportunity for resellers is enormous, and a wave of new features is making the upsell conversation more compelling than ever.
Here’s a breakdown of the most relevant Teams Phone updates from early 2026, filtered for what matters to the South African reseller market.
AI Interpreter: Real-Time Language Translation on Calls
One of the most headline-grabbing additions to Teams Phone is AI Interpreter, now rolling out in March 2026. The feature enables real-time, speech-to-speech language interpretation directly within a phone call — meaning participants can speak in their preferred language while AI translates the conversation in real time for the other party.
For South Africa’s diverse, multilingual business environment, this is more than a novelty. Organisations operating across language communities — or nose with international supplier and customer relationships — have a genuinely useful tool here. It’s a strong conversation-starter in enterprise and government accounts.
Operator Co-Branding: Good News for Operator Connect Partners
Microsoft is introducing operator co-branding within Teams Phone, which allows the service provider’s logo and name to appear directly in the Teams interface —” on the dialpad and during PSTN calls — so users can see who’s providing their telephony connectivity.
This is a meaningful win for any reseller or operator delivering services through the Microsoft Operator Connect programme. It increases brand visibility with end-users at the point of service delivery and reinforces the value of having a local, accountable service provider rather than a faceless cloud connection. If your business is in the Operator Connect ecosystem, this feature is worth communicating to your customers.
Multi-Line Support: Up to 10 Numbers Per User
Teams Phone now supports multi-line configurations, allowing administrators to assign up to 10 different phone numbers to a single user account. Users can then make and receive calls from any of their assigned numbers without switching accounts or devices.
This opens up use cases that have previously been awkward in Teams Phone — such as executives managing personal and business lines, or agents handling calls across multiple brands or departments from a single device.
Microsoft Graph APIs Now Generally Available
For larger enterprise deployments and managed service providers, the general availability of Microsoft Graph APIs for Teams Phone is a significant productivity unlock. These APIs cover Teams user configuration, phone number management, and policy assignment, enabling automated provisioning and administration at scale.
For MSPs managing multiple customers’ Teams Phone environments, this removes a substantial amount of manual work. It also enables tighter integration with PSA platforms and custom customer portals.
Copilot Enhancements for Calls
Microsoft 365 Copilot continues to be woven more deeply into the Teams Phone experience. During calls, Copilot can now suggest prompts to generate call summaries and notes, and during active calls, it will intelligently suggest transfer destinations based on context and communication history.
For businesses already invested in Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing, these enhancements add tangible call-handling value — and represent a natural upsell anchor for resellers selling Teams Phone alongside M365.
Compliance Recording at Queue Level
A useful administrative improvement: compliance recording can now be applied at the call queue level rather than requiring individual user-by-user policy configuration. Administrators apply a single policy to the queue, and all calls through it are recorded consistently.
For customers in regulated industries — financial services, healthcare, contact centres — this is a meaningful reduction in administrative overhead and compliance risk.
Delayed Simultaneous Ring
Teams Phone now supports delayed simultaneous ring, where a call will first ring the primary recipient for a set interval before simultaneously alerting other designated numbers. This reduces distraction in group or shared-responsibility call scenarios while still ensuring coverage if the primary recipient doesn’t answer.
Queues App: Shared Call History Now in Public Preview
The Queues App — Microsoft’s native Teams-based call queue management tool — now includes shared call history in public preview. Teams and supervisors can view a unified log of all incoming, outgoing, missed calls, and voicemails across a call queue. This is a significant step toward proper contact centre visibility within native Teams Phone, without requiring a third-party overlay.
The Upsell Opportunity: Most Teams Users Aren’t on Teams Phone Yet
Perhaps the most important number in all of this: 26 million Teams Phone PSTN users sounds impressive, but it represents approximately 6% penetration of Microsoft’s massive Teams user base. In plain terms — the overwhelming majority of busineses using Microsoft Teams every day have not yet activated Teams Phone.
For resellers, this is a pipeline that is already sitting in your customer accounts. Every business running Microsoft Teams is a potential Teams Phone prospect. The features released in early 2026 — AI Interpreter, multi-line support, Copilot integration, improved compliance tools — make the “why upgrade from your old PBX” conversation sharper and more concrete than it’s ever been.
Getting Started
If you’re a Microsoft partner or reseller looking to grow your Teams Phone practice, speak to your Microsoft distributor about the Operator Connect programme, licensing options, and available sales enablement resources.
Sources: Teams Phone 26 Million users — UC Today | What’s New in Microsoft Teams — February 2026
About Microsoft Teams on Telecoms-Channel
For the full Microsoft Teams portfolio, company background, and South African reseller resources, visit the Microsoft Teams vendor page on Telecoms-Channel.
About the Author
Mechelle Gindra
Mechelle Gindra is the managing editor and lead content strategist at Telecoms-Channel, South Africa's dedicated intelligence platform for telecoms resellers, ICT distributors, and channel partners. She oversees the editorial team's AI-assisted content production pipeline, ensuring vendor news, market analysis, and regulatory updates are accurate, timely, and actionable for the SA telecoms channel community. With deep expertise in the South African telecoms reseller ecosystem, Mechelle directs coverage of vendor partner programmes, ICASA regulatory developments, wholesale market dynamics, and channel business strategy. She is responsible for maintaining Telecoms-Channel's editorial standards, fact-checking processes, and corrections policy.
