Unified communications must still consider the use of technologies sometimes considered legacy, but which still have an inalienable validity today. MS Teams is no exception, and in order to offer a complete UCaaS solution it must coexist with traditional phone calls.
Obviously between two MS Teams users the possibility of calling each other at any time exists and does not imply any added expense. It is also possible to invite users external to the organization to meetings, assuming the send and accept flow.
But the conditions that allow the aforementioned routes to be used are not always met. For example, when one of the users does not have the computer on, or only has a landline phone at hand; if it is necessary to call an emergency service (112, 911…); or in Contact Center contexts, when answering incoming calls from customer service numbers.
Although it is often considered to be a “legacy” technology, the reality is that PSTN calls are, today, the most universal voice channel. All users of a mobile phone or a landline phone can receive and make voice calls. In addition, the telephone number continues to be a relevant identifier with an impact on the recipient’s perception (for example, the use of local numbers to transfer an image of proximity).