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azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Dear all,

 

Cisco Webex Teams, apart from paid client, offers a free client that provide great services to any user.

What free Webex Teams client offers?

a) Team Messaging

You can create unlimited  WebexTeams spaces for team collaboration (exchange messages, share files, etc). You can invite anyone by email (customers, partners or anyone you need to work with). If invited person does not have a Webex Teams account then he/she gets a welcome email to get a free Webex Teams accoun and join. 

Webex teams offers also many options to integrate with 3rd-party applications:  

https://apphub.webex.com/

https://help.webex.com/en-us/n0qp3oeb/Connect-Your-Tools-and-Automate-Tasks

Plus Webex Teams offers feature-rich two-way whiteboarding inside team spaces. 

 

b) Start a team meeting inside Webex Teams space

While you are in a Webex Teams space, you can easily select ''Meet'' and start a team meeting with rest of Webex Teams space members  (using camera/microphones from your device - PC/laptop/smartphones/tablets). 

Team Meeting capabilities per case are described here --> https://help.webex.com/en-us/uxg1zl/Webex-Teams-Meeting-Capabilities-and-Meeting-Sponsors

If user with free Webex Teams account created the space, then team meetings are supported only in spaces of up to 25 members and these team meetings have limited capabilities as described in above article  (meaning audio/video/sharing/etc is there is no support for Audio PSTN, recording and guest access)

if user with free Webex Teams account participates in spaces created by other people then meeting capabilities are dictated by the creator of the space:

--> if creator of space has paid Webex Teams account, then team meetings are supported only in spaces of up to 100 members (limited capabilities again).

--> if creator of space has paid Webex Meetings account, then team meetings are supported only in spaces of up to 200 members (full capabilities in this case).

 

c) use Webex Teams client to make/receive SIP calls

Each free Webex Teams client has SIP URI and could place/receive SIP calls.

You could use it to dial other SIP systems (endpoints or MCUs) over Internet (including SIP URI of Webex Meetings).

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Difference between free vs paid Webex Teams?

According to below articles:

https://help.webex.com/en-us/n19jg1u/Cisco-Webex-Free-Plan-Features#id_133759

https://help.webex.com/en-us/uxg1zl/Webex-Teams-Meeting-Capabilities-and-Meeting-Sponsors

free Webex Teams offers a lot of advanced features but :

a) does not support space moderation capabilities (lock space,etc) // paid client support this

b) supports team meetings in spaces of up to 25 members only // paid client supports team meetings in spaces of up to 100 members (always talking about spaces that this user created)

Apart from above:

c) free Webex Teams has a 6months retention policy (from Webex Teams privacy datasheet : ''Cisco provides free account users up to 6 months of free storage. User-Generated content will be deleted after 6 months.''). Retention policy of paid Webex Teams is dictated in their webex org by their administrator.

d) paid Webex Teams are part of a webex org so could take advantage of many enterprise-level features like SSO authentication, hybrid calendar, extra security features, retention policy, etc. etc. These enterprise-level features are not applicable for individual free Webex Teams client.

 

Important note - What about free Webex Teams added in Webex org (via claim process)?

Assume customer has a paid webex org with various paid webex services (calling/meetings/team messaging) assigned to certain users. Rest users could have free Webex Teams account to participate in team messaging service but then these would be unmanaged and will not be able to utilize ent-level features (SSO authentication, retention policy,etc.) 

Now, customer could verify email domain and claim these users that created free Webex Teams accounts with corporate email. Claim process is described here: https://help.webex.com/en-us/nceb8tm/Claim-Users-to-Your-Organization-Convert-Users

When you claim a free Webex Teams user then this is user is added under your Webex org and if desired, you could keep him/her without assigning paid Webex teams license. And since this Webex Teams user is now part of a Webex org, they could utilise some of the enterprise level features. 

(At the moment I have not crosschecked which enterprise-level features can be applied to these users - my understanding is that SSO authentication and retention policies are there which seem the most important to me. Hybrid calendar requires a paid webex teams license so can not be utilised by these ''managed free webex teams'' users)

Bottomline is that customers with webex org could add users with free Webex Teams in their Control Hub (via claim process) without assigning licenses to them. These users would have free Webex Teams capabilities (no change here) but benefit is that that these users would be now managed by customer's webex org (big security benefit!) and could utilize some enterprise-level functions (very important also). 

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Summary

For individuals: free Webex Teams is a great client to help you collaborate with colleagues/partners. Get your free Webex Teams client here!

For enterprise customers with paid webex org : apart from the users you have already in your Webex Control hub that consume paid licenses (calling/meeting or team messaging) , you could add free Webex Teams users in your control hub for extra benefits without consuming any licenses.

For new customers : ask your cisco collab partner for a enterprise trial in order to experience power of Webex Teams together with Webex Control hub (management portal) plus other webex services. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hope this helps

 

please rate if you find helpful

Index of all my collab community posts --> Looking for info on Cisco Collab solutions ? 

 

rgds

Alkiviadis

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DISCLAIMER: this post was created in order to provide useful info to Cisco partners and customers in my area (Greece/Cyprus and Malta).  For official and updated information, please consult cisco documentation, datasheets and ordering guides.

Comments
ceos0501
Level 1
Level 1

Are any of these free features changing with the new -also free- Cisco Webex Teams?

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi Oscar,

apart from the ongoing addition of features in general, I am not aware of any changes specifically to free version.

But I am not from the Product team so we would need to monitor announcements and updates on this.


rgds

Alkiviadis

skilambi
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

Isn't 75 now changed to 100. As per 33.3 if I remember right it has now changed to 100 and teams (i.e. spark) will apply towards that 100 limit

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

yes, the number of video endpoints has been increased to 100 (I think it went live for Webex meetings on July 30th- not sure for Webex Teams).

 

But note that for Webex Meetings  at least, actual maximum number might still depend on your old entitlement (so if you have MC-25 then your limit is 25 regardless of video or browser). 

 

Not sure if webex teams subscription have similar limitation or if all webex teams customers can today have today 100-participants in Webex Teams Meetings. 

This is the reason mentioned 75 or higher. 

But probably you are right , it is better to state the 100 number on my comparison matrix to reflect new enhancement (and this would probably apply to all or mostly all of webex  teams customers) 

 

txs!

richb1971
Level 4
Level 4

Is Webex Teams Calling with on-prem CUCM available in the UK? 

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

I am sorry but I am not covering on this market.

Please contact your cisco channel account manager or cisco collab lead to clarify.

 

Sidenote : 

if you mean Hybrid Call Connect services (have Webex teams clients work as ''CUCM extensions'' and make PSTN calls) then this is most probably possible. 

But note that this is different that Webex Calling service (IPPBX on the cloud).

 

skilambi
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

If you do hybrid call services using CUCM, the country is irrelevant. If you use calling in the cloud via Intelepeer or West or Thinktel then uk is an issue until Broadsoft changes the architecture.

 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cloudCollaboration/spark/hybridservices/callservices/cmgt_b_ciscospark-hybrid-call-service-config-guide/cmgt_b_ciscospark-hybrid-call-service-config-guide_chapter_011.html#reference_CE6B45E63CE70494...

 

https://collaborationhelp.cisco.com/article/en-us/zgjezbb

 

 

 

rolang
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

We've recently run into Free clients that were moved to "Evaluation clients" that expired after 30 days. Was this a short term practice that we have now discontinued? Please confirm.

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

hi, are you referring to Webex Teams account or to Webex Meetings account? 

I am not aware of having 30-days Webex Teams free accounts.  

Harald Steindl
Level 1
Level 1

Is the free SIP URI still supposed to work?

After mainly calling OUT from WebexTeams to external SIP-URIs, which mostly work (see below) I tried to call in. No good.

 

Trying to reach my Account via user1234@free.call.ciscospark.com from ONSIP.COM gets me a unavailable!

Any ideas?

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

hi Harald,

 

so calling from free Webex Teams client works but accepting calls (coming from ONSIP.com) does not work?

In that case, I would suggest to check incoming calls from other SIP entities (other standards-based SIP systems from Cisco or other vendor over internet) apart from ONSIP.com. If others work then it is a compatibility issue between Webex Teams and ONSIP.com.

 

My experience and expectation is that both incoming and outgoing calls are expected to work. I find it extremely unlikely that Webex Teams blocks incoming calls and allows only outgoing calls.

 

rgds

Alkiviadis

Harald Steindl
Level 1
Level 1

Thanks for replying.

Neither way works for me.

Further tests revealed that ONSIP -> EKIGA.net works as does EKIGA.net -> Onsip so I assume both of my SIP accounts to be OK for external calls.

BUT neither WebexTeams <-> Onsip nor WebexTeams <-> Ekiga.net works, whatever direction.

 

the only thing really working for currently is call out from WebexTeams to wellknown test numbers

sip:music@iptel.org for example works but has strange audio dropouts every other second...

sip:904@mouselike.org works perfect as does testcall@lifesizecloud.com

 

Maybe WebexTeams did change my SIP Address without notifying me.....

akhilps
Level 1
Level 1

Note of this case also :  free Webex Teams users added in a Webex paid org without consuming licenses 

Do we have any documentation or details for this scenario.
What are the features available?, I'm aware that Webex meetings does not provide hosting capabilities for unlicensed users. Is that the same for Teams as well ?.

.

azoupas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi, 

 

there is no concept of free Webex Meetings accounts inside a paid org Webex Control Hub.

But for webex teams is different. You can claim a free Webex Teams account (that was done with your company email) and add it in your Control Hub. I am not in a position to mention all the features that this user will have (without consuming licenses I mean) but I think Calendar integration and SSO could be possible. Please check with your local collab expert since I don't have at the moment updated/latest info. Or could give it a try :-) 

 

rgds

Alkiviadis 

akhilps
Level 1
Level 1

Hi,

Thanks for your prompt response .

We have been looking for this answer for a while .
I tried all resources available but no luck .
Can you tell me where I can fetch more details on this scenario ?

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