Microsoft Teams pricing changes will be a gift for some, but not for others
There’s a new-look subscription structure for Microsoft Teams Rooms
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Microsofthas announced changes to the pricing structure for Teams Rooms, itscollaboration servicefor in-office meeting spaces.
In place of the existing Standard and Premium plans, which cost $15/£11.30 and $50/£37.70 per device per month, the company will offer two new packages: Teams Rooms Basic and Teams Rooms Pro.
The Basic plan is included for free with the purchase of any Teams Room-certified device (scaling up to 25 devices total), and the latter will cost $40/user/month.TechRadar Prois awaiting confirmation of UK pricing.
Microsoft Teams Room Pro
Although Microsoft has rebranded its Teams Rooms offering, the ambition remains the same: to provide businesses with the tools they need to support newhybrid workingandvideo conferencinguse cases.
“The future of work is flexible. Now more than ever organizations need a single, integrated experience that makes working together easier and more engaging for their employees whether they are all in the same room, remote, or - for many of us - a mix of both,” wrote Microsoft, in ablog post.
“Enabling truly great hybrid meetings and collaboration has gone fromnice to havetomust have. Because of this, Microsoft is happy to announce changes to Microsoft Teams Rooms, making it easier to start your hybrid journey.”
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The main difference between the free and paid plans is the sophistication of the features available. Although Teams Rooms Basic will allow smaller companies to schedule and attend meetings, it lacks the management and security functionality available with Teams Rooms Pro.
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The paid version is also said to offer a wider array of in-meeting features and functionality. For example, the service includes a broader range of video layout options, improved noise suppression and under-the-hood features that improve performance. It also comes bundled with features like live reactions, designed to increase the level of engagement.
Whether or not the new arrangement will represent a cost saving will vary from customer to customer, by virtue of the switch from a per device to a per user subscription model. For a mid-sized company whose fleet of Teams Rooms devices is far smaller than the number of employees, the new plan may work out to be more expensive.
Customers currently on legacy Standard and Premium plans will be migrated over to the new Teams Rooms pricing structure once their existing subscription term has come to an end.
Update: September 12, 2022Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro will cost £30.20/user/month in the UK and AU$54.90/user/month in Australia.
Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He’s responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.
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