Astound Broadband, the sixth-largest U.S. cable operator comprising the operations of regional service providers RCN, Grande Communications, Wave Broadband, and enTouch Systems, has this month announced the launch of its Direct Routing Service for Microsoft Teams. The service will enable Astound's Business Solutions customers to integrate voice calling into Teams' real-time workspace for collaboration and communication.
The operator said its alliance with Microsoft comes at a time when demand for collaboration platforms and remote working solutions continues to soar. As reckoned by the operator, with the new service Astound Business Solutions customers can now make dependable, high-quality voice calls directly from their Teams application to allow for more productive collaboration across all employees, wherever they are located.
Astound stated that it is deploying the direct routing capability for Teams to support larger enterprise organizations looking to enable PSTN calling in Teams, by integrating voice calling connectivity through the operator. With the new service offering, customers have the flexibility to choose between Teams for voice calling, as well as their existing phone system, based on whichever is preferable in the moment.
The service supports existing phone systems, allowing businesses to avoid migration disruptions and reduce costs by lowering phone bills via greater use of IP telephony. Further, for flexible compatibility, the Direct Routing feature turns Teams into a cloud telephony solution available on any device running the Teams application, as noted by Astound.
Patrick Knorr, chief commercial officer for Astound Business Solutions, remarked, “While collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams have become more popular than ever, voice communication remains a vital part of employee collaboration and productivity, Businesses across the country have made clear to us that they want to seamlessly integrate calling capabilities directly into their collaboration platforms, and Direct Routing for Teams does just that.”
The following consumer-oriented video from Astound Broadband describes and illustrates the company's customer focus.
