How have business phone prices been changing, besides going up?
Summary
Through billing terms, regrouped tiers, and new names on the bill. On April 1, 2025, Microsoft updated Teams Phone's annual price for the first time since the standalone plans launched and, on the same date, set monthly billing for annual subscriptions 5% above the upfront price. In 2026, 3CX redrew its hosted tiers, and Cox began operating as Spectrum after Charter closed the deal.
Microsoft changed two things at once
Microsoft's November 12, 2024 announcement covered both. Teams Phone, which launched in 2017, got its first price update for standalone plans: for new and renewing commercial customers, Teams Phone Standard became $10 per user per month ($120 a year), pay-as-you-go calling became $13 in the US and $12 in the UK and Canada, and the Frontline Workers version became $5.
The second change applied to annual subscriptions paid monthly. From April 1, 2025, new and renewing annual terms billed monthly cost 5% more than the same term paid up front. Microsoft's suggestion for customers who want to avoid it is to switch to annual upfront billing at renewal. A company paying monthly for Teams Phone Standard took both changes on the same day.
3CX moved the tier boundaries
On June 17, 2026, 3CX repriced Hosted by 3CX, effective immediately. Annual prices are now $295 for 4 to 8 simultaneous calls, $450 for 16 to 24, $795 for 32 to 64, and $1,995 for 96 to 256. 3CX says small instances saw no increase and that 16 simultaneous calls had been grouped with the 4-to-8 tier by mistake. For a 16-call customer, that correction reads as a price increase; for large systems the same post describes significant reductions.
Earlier that year, on January 8, 3CX announced a free 4-call variant of its Basic Edition. It isn't eligible for 3CX's hosting, so it runs only on a server you provide.
New names, new owners
OpenPhone rebranded to Quo on September 23, 2025. The announcement says the rebrand isn't about changing the product and says nothing about pricing, but any comparison that still lists OpenPhone has to be matched against Quo's pricing page.
Avaya Cloud Office's pricing URL now redirects to RingCentral's RingEX page, which doesn't mention Avaya. Charter completed its transaction with Cox Communications on August 20, 2026. The release's headline says Spectrum brand, pricing, and packaging would launch in all Cox markets in mid-September, and the body applies that to consumers without saying what happens to Cox Business phone pricing. Cox's business phone page now carries the title "Cox is now Spectrum."
Rates that new customers can't get
Spectrum's Business Voice price guides for Charter, former Time Warner Cable, and former Bright House areas all took effect September 22, 2025. Each includes a section called "Services and Rates No Longer Offered to New Customers," and existing subscribers keep those rates until they discontinue or move the service. Two customers of the same provider can be on different price lists for years.
Zoom shows the same kind of gap on its own site. A marketing page FAQ still says metered calling plans start at $10 per user per month and North American unlimited plans at $15. The pricing page starts at $16 billed annually for US & CA Unlimited and lists no metered-only plan.
Sources
- techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft_365blog/flexible-billing-for-microsoft-365-copilot-pricing-updates-for-annual-subscripti/4288536
- 3cx.com/blog/news/hosted-pricing-updates
- 3cx.com/blog/news/free-edition
- quo.com/blog/next-chapter
- avaya.com/en/products/cloud-office/pricing
- corporate.charter.com/newsroom/charter-and-cox-communications-complete-transaction
- cox.com/business/phone.html
- spectrum.com/policies/charter-spectrum-business-voice-price-guide
- spectrum.com/policies/time-warner-business-cable-voice-price-guide
- spectrum.com/policies/bright-house-business-cable-voice-price-guide
- zoom.com/en/products/voip-phone/solutions/business-phone-service
- zoom.us/pricing/zoom-phone
Related on this site
- Monthly vs annual billing: 1.28x more on 10 phone plans
- "From" prices: 9 of the plans here are starting points, not prices
- Do business phone providers charge by the user, the line, or the company?
- What does a year of business phone service cost for a 10-person team?
- Is the $10 Microsoft Teams Phone license enough to call regular phone numbers?
- Is 3CX actually cheaper than paying for a phone service per user?
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.