Information – Teams Phone System – Changes to normalization rules for phone numbers that starts with plus sign (+)

09/08/2023 13:57:00 PM (GMT)

Starting from mid-July and completing by late August, Microsoft will be making a change in Microsoft Teams regarding the normalization of phone numbers that begin with a plus sign (+). Currently, Teams desktop and web clients do not enforce this restriction, but in the future, this will be enforced, therefore we advise avoiding this pattern for now.

This change is being implemented to align with NHS phone system Calling Service. Consequently, any phone numbers that start with a plus sign (+) will not be subjected to any normalization rules. On the other hand, translated numbers that do not begin with a plus sign (+) will go through normalization rules multiple times. For more details, please refer to the Create and manage dial plans documentation.

It is important to note that there will be no immediate impact on NHS Teams Phone System. We are informing you in advance so that you can prepare for this change. If your organization relies on dial plan policies to translate numbers dialled with a plus sign (+), those rules will no longer be effective. You will need to instruct your end users to either dial the correct E.164 number starting with a plus sign (+) or dial numbers without a plus sign (+) to match the dial plan policies.

To prepare for this change, no specific actions are required. However, it may be beneficial to inform your users about this upcoming change and update any relevant documentation accordingly