Microsoft Teams Continues Premium Add-On Preview

Nicole Herskowitz, Vice President of Microsoft Teams, said of Premium that it would be: "Built on the familiar, all-in-one collaboration experience of Microsoft Teams, this new offering makes every meeting from one-on-ones to large meetings, to virtual appointments to webinars more personalised, intelligent, and secure."

Teams Rooms Basic, Standard and Pro

As UC Today reported, the new lower tier that replaced Microsoft Teams Standard, Teams Rooms Basic, removed advanced features, such as Front Row. At the same time, Teams Rooms Pro became a middle tier and listed a comparable set of features to Premium for $10 cheaper. The Pro package was downgraded to the managed server platform, and some new features were promised. 

There have been some surprised reactions in the Microsoft Community as the tier restructuring has meant many companies would have to pay an extra $25 for previously already available features: literally before, as Standard. Teams Basic's tariff meant many large and medium-sized companies could no longer qualify with the change from unlimited tenants to a maximum of 25 tenants.

Price Jump to Maintain Features

Tom Arbuthnot, on his blog Tom Talks commented: "$40 a month will be a big cost jump for lots of customers who have gone with Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard ($15) licencing today and want to maintain the features they have today and have the future advanced features.

"The changes in tariffs also restrict device use, encouraging those wanting versatility to upgrade. Microsoft's licence documentation states: "A Teams Rooms Basic license can be used to license a single certified Teams Rooms device in a room. If you want to log into more than one device in a room using the same resource account (for example, a Teams Rooms console, a Surface Hub, and a Teams panel), you need to use a Teams Rooms Pro license."

Teams Standard also had supported experiences, meeting scheduling, meeting join, meeting engagement and collaboration, meeting and device controls, security, management and administration, and managed operation. However, Basic comes free with certified Teams devices and Standard costs $15 per device.