What does a cloud phone line cost an Australian business?
Summary
The clearest published figure is Telstra's: $19.80 per line per month to add calling to Microsoft Teams through Operator Connect for Business. That buys the line and a calling plan, not the software, so each user still needs Microsoft 365 and a Teams Phone Standard license. Zoom and 8x8 don't publish Australian prices on their pricing pages.
Telstra with Microsoft Teams
| Item | What Telstra's summary says |
|---|---|
| Price | $19.80 per line per month |
| Minimum term | 1 month; maximum early termination charge $19.80 |
| Calls included | Local, national, long distance, and Australian mobile calls; 13 and directory calls; 30 minutes of international calls to any country |
| Not included | Microsoft products, internet service, data, installation or configuration, hardware |
| Who can buy | Small and medium businesses with a Telstra-billed account; users based in Australia |
| Numbers | Up to 100 per account; you're billed only for users assigned a number in the Teams admin center |
The license requirement is the part that changes the math. Telstra's line works only on Teams services that already include or add Teams Phone Standard, on top of whatever Microsoft 365 licenses Microsoft requires for each user. A business already paying for Teams Phone adds $19.80 a line. One that uses Teams only for chat and meetings adds the Teams Phone license as well.
Two conditions are easy to miss. The service can't be transferred to another owner; if ownership changes, the service and its numbers are canceled and new numbers issued. Telstra can change the price or inclusions with at least 30 days' notice.
Zoom, 8x8, and RingCentral
Zoom sells an Australia/New Zealand regional plan with a direct-dial number and domestic calling in both countries. Its pricing page shows U.S. dollars only, and the prices listed are for the U.S./Canada plans. Zoom's coverage table lists local numbers, toll-free numbers, and SMS/MMS in Australia.
8x8's Australian pricing page has no prices, only Request a Quote buttons. RingCentral runs a separate Australian pricing page that advertises savings of up to 38% for annual billing.
Triple Zero and your address
Calls to Triple Zero (000) are free. The ACMA says 000 works from any fixed or mobile phone and from certain VoIP and satellite services, and 112 works from mobiles only. Because a VoIP caller may not be at their home or billing address, the operator asks for the town and state.
With Telstra's Teams service, the address in the Integrated Public Number Database is your account address. An emergency address entered in the Teams admin portal is not given to emergency services, and changing it in Teams doesn't change the database record.
Power is the other gap. Most NBN services stop working in an outage, and so does 000 calling over them. The ACMA points to a charged mobile phone as the fallback, and Telstra's summary warns that calls, 000 included, may not work during a power failure.
Sources
- telstra.com.au/help/critical-information-summaries/business/business-telephony/telstra-adaptive-collaboration/microsoft-operator-connect-for-business
- zoom.us/pricing/zoom-phone
- zoom.com/en/products/voip-phone/features/global-coverage
- 8x8.com/en-au/products/plans-and-pricing
- ringcentral.com/au/en/office/plansandpricing.html
- acma.gov.au/emergency-calls
Related on this site
- Can employees use the company phone number while they're abroad?
- Is Teams Phone or Google Voice still cheap once you count the license underneath?
- How do the big cloud phone services differ on price and features?
- 8x8 pricing data
- Zoom Phone pricing data
- Microsoft Teams Phone pricing data
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.