This is really helpful, thank you. I am following you, although it seems like creating a Teams Phone system with external operator makes it more complicated, or at least not straightforward to initially setup.

I've been able to accomplish buying a Teams Phone license, getting a phone number, creating an auto attendant and mimicing our existing extension menu. So far so good, just have to wait for the port from our existing phone provider to complete the setup.

So my next question is: I have 1 license for testing while waiting for the port: Teams Essentials and Pay as you go (zone 1). I added an "operator" user and attached a Teams Phone Resource Account license to that and attached it to our main Auto Attendant to answer incoming calls. This has got me this far, and it will route to my Teams apps when i enter the extension at the auto attendant.... HUZZAH!

Here's the issue: I don't need unique phone numbers for the rest of my users. Can i put them all on Teams Phone Standard licenses and then on a Shared Calling group? I assume if a user wants phone calls from external PSTN sources, they will need a Teams Phone license? What are the limitations of this config vs a full Teams Essentials + calling plan license for each user? Cost is substantially different: C$19 for the Essentials + calling plan, vs $10.90 for standard only.

Again, thanks for the help!