Zoom Continues UCaaS PushZoom Continues UCaaS Push
Extends voice footprint and introduces simplified calling plan
August 17, 2020
Continuing its UCaaS momentum, Zoom today introduced additional service regions/territories for Zoom Phone and a new global calling plan.
First, Zoom has expanded its Zoom Phone footprint. Now operating in 40 countries and territories with local phone service and domestic calling plans. Zoom Phones launched in the U.S. and Canada roughly 1.5 years ago and has progressively added more geographies since then, according to Geddes. And now, the Zoom Phone cloud service is available in over 40 countries and territories, with new countries and territories from Europe and LATAM, Geddes said.
Then, on top of this, Zoom launched the Zoom Phone Global Select plan, an unlimited domestic calling plan in any of the 40 countries and territories for $20 per user/month, with international calling available for an additional $10 per month. With Global Select, Zoom supplies the domestic calling plan and provides the PSTN service, Graeme Geddes, head of Zoom Phones and Rooms, told No Jitter in a briefing. Using Global Select, businesses would no longer need to negotiate for telephone services within each of the countries in which they operate and, therefore, will be able to predict telephony expenses more accurately, Geddes said.
Separately, Zoom will continue to offer Phone Pro, starting at $8 per user/month, for companies that do not require individual phone numbers for each employee, Geddes said.
These announcements are a clear continuation of Zoom’s strategy in building out its UCaaS capabilities, Irwin Lazar, a VP at Nemertes Research, told No Jitter. With the work-from-home trend continuing throughout the year and beyond, many organizations are looking for a single solution for calling, meetings, and team collaboration/messaging, Lazar said.
While Geddes couldn’t comment on the future of Zoom Phone beyond today’s announcement, he did mention that the focus on UC will be unabated. Though the term "UC" has been around since 2006/2007, Geddes joked that it really has been more “loosely coupled communications.” Moving forward, Geddes said Zoom will continue to bring the full PBX feature set to the platform and explore more use cases.
