Skype Shutdown on July 31, 2023 – Are Your Phones Ready?

Having a combined 80+ years of Telecom experience, we know our users greatly value the investment they‘ve put into Skype, so they’ll be glad to know there is a solution through SIP Gateways to enable these devices to securely connect and function as Microsoft Endpoints should.

We encourage our clients and all users to consider this solution, as Skype for Business Online is set to PERMANANTLY BE SHUT-OFF ON JULY 31, 2023.

How to tell if you are considered highly adaptable into this scenario:

1. You have compatible 3PIP devices connecting to Teams via SIP Gateway on July 31, 2023
   No action required – your phones will work on the SIP Gateway.
2. You have compatible 3PIP devices connecting to Teams, but not through the Teams gateway on July 31, 2023
   Your phones will stop working, unless you take steps described below to upgrade your devices to connect to Teams though a SIP Gateway.
3. You have incompatible 3PIP devices connecting to Teams on July 31, 2023
   Your phones will stop working, you must replace them with Teams phone devices or compatible devices for continued scenario support.

Check the compatibility of your phones here.

SIP GATEWAY IS…

SIP Gateway enables customers to use compatible 3rd-party devices with Teams and leverage the following core Teams calling features:

• Incoming and outgoing calls with hold/resume and transfer
• Call forwarding
• Dial-in to and dial-out from meetings
• In-a-call presence and “Do not disturb” settings on devices
• Dynamic E911 support on select SIP Gateway compatible devices
• Voicemail and message waiting indicator
• SIP Gateway is available with your Teams Phone Standard license with PSTN enabled.

THE SOLUTION:

SIP Gateway is the recommended approach for customers to continue using 3PIP phones to connect and work with Teams. We recognize that the upgrade of 3PIP devices to SIP Gateway can be lengthy, and so we highly encourage beginning the process as soon as possible.

Why should you upgrade to SIP Gateway?

With SIP Gateway you can continue using your devices with Teams through a more secure, future ready core telephony platform. SIP Gateway provides the following benefits:

• Added security: Upgrade to SIP Gateway for a more secure experience for your phone devices with Teams.
• Future ready core telephony platform: SIP Gateway will invest in scenarios that are not available for 3PIP phones today.
• Join Teams Meetings on SIP Devices: Users can attend Teams meetings from SIP devices, and meetings attendees can invite a SIP device to the meeting.
• Manage multiple concurrent calls: Make concurrent calls, receive calls by placing calls on hold, or combine calls into one call.

Here is the process to upgrade devices to SIP Gateway:

Your administrator needs to take the following steps:

1. Provision your devices with SIP Gateway
2. For an AudioCodes 3PIP Device
3. Onboard your AudioCodes 400 HD series devices to OVOC and AudioCodes Device Manager
4. Setup AudioCodes OVOC account if you don’t have one already

iii. Configure the SIP Gateway provisioning URL in Device Manager – Get more information on how to set up the device management tool here

1. Upgrade the phone firmware version to the minimum supported firmware (or higher) for SIP Gateway
2. In the Monitor Page, under Actions menu, select More, and then select SET as TEAMS SIP Gateway
3. For a Poly 3PIP Devices
4. Onboard (redirect) your Poly VVX and/or Poly Trio devices to Poly Lens from RPRM/PDMS-E or through DHCP server reconfiguration
5. Setup Lens Account if you don’t have one already

iii. Upgrade the phone firmware version to the approved firmware for SIP Gateway. For more details on the approved firmware version go here.

1. Remotely reset the devices from Lens
2. Create Phone Policy with SIP Gateway Provisioning enabled and select the SIP Gateway region you want to provision your devices to
3. For a Yealink Device
4. Reset your 3PIP Yealink T40 series devices to factory settings
5. Redirect your devices to SIP Gateway provisioning server through DHCP server reconfiguration

2, Configure SIP Gateway for your organization

3. Activate your devices to use SIP Gateway. For more information on how to activate your devices go here.
4. Sign-in to the device locally or
5. Enroll device for remote sign in from Teams admin center

Reach out to us through your Microsoft account representatives or Support if you have any questions and stay tuned for more details.