Microsoft to Reduce Price for Teams Rooms Plans in September

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft has announced some important pricing changes regarding Microsoft Teams Rooms plans, which will go into effect on September 1, 2022. The company is set to introduce a new Teams Rooms Pro plan for commercial customers, which will replace the existing Standard and Premium subscriptions.

Microsoft Teams Rooms are certified video conferencing solutions that provide access to video meetings, chat features, voice-over-IP, and more. Currently, the Standard subscription for Microsoft Teams Rooms is priced at $15 per device per month, and the Premium license costs $50 per device per month.

The core features in Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro will include AI-powered meeting features such as audio or video conferencing and multiscreen support. It will also offer device management capabilities for IT admins. At $40 per month, Microsoft believes that Teams Rooms Pro is an ideal licensing option to meet the needs of large enterprises and small companies.

“It’s the appropriate license for the Enterprise segment and for smaller organizations with larger room counts or more advanced needs. Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro licenses will be listed at an estimated retail price of USD40 per room per month and made available in all channels where Standard and Premium are currently offered,” the company explained.

Microsoft to introduce a free Basic tier for SMBs

Microsoft has also announced that it will retire the existing Standard license in favor of Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic. The free version of the product is designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It includes core meeting experiences such as the ability to schedule/join meetings, share content, interactive whiteboard collaboration, and basic security and management features.

Notably, Microsoft says that each Basic license “enables one certified Teams Rooms device per room,” and organizations will be able to purchase up to 25 Basic subscriptions. Microsoft advises partners to move their customers to the new Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro plan as soon as possible.

Update to managed services for Microsoft Teams Rooms

In addition to the new subscription model, Microsoft has announced some updates coming to Teams Rooms managed services for premium customers. Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro will bring AI-powered platform management capabilities. These include real-time monitoring, update ring configuration, diagnostic tools, and in-depth incident analytics.

“As we focus on delivering the growing software as a service (SaaS) value of managed services in Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro, Microsoft will be winding down the involvement of our service engineers. That means that they’ll no longer serve as intermediaries for the incident management workflows starting October 1, 2022,” Microsoft added.

Microsoft plans to offer a 60-day free trial for the new Teams Rooms Pro subscription option to government, education, and non-profit customers. Meanwhile, all commercial customers will be able to access the free trial for 30 days.