Microsoft licenses for Frontline Workers

What are Frontline Workers?

Microsoft uses this description:

Frontline employees are employees whose primary function is to work directly with customers or the general public to provide services and support and to sell products, or employees who are directly involved in the production and distribution of products or services.

Examples include healthcare, transportation, manufacturing and entertainment workers. In fact, almost anyone who works on a shared device or on a smartphone or tablet with a screen smaller than 10.9 inches.

License Eligibility for Frontline Worker Licenses

Microsoft 365 Frontline Worker licenses may only be assigned to users who satisfy one or more of the following conditions:  

• Uses a primary work device with a single screen smaller than 10.9”
• Shares their primary work device with other qualifying Microsoft 365 or Office 365 Frontline Worker licensed users, during or across shifts.
• Other licensed Microsoft Frontline Worker users must also use the device as their primary work device.
• Any software or services accessed from the shared device requires the device or users to be assigned a license that includes use of those software or services.

Qualifying Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Frontline Worker licenses include Microsoft 365 F1, Microsoft 365 F3, and/or Office 365 F3.

Windows Use Rights for Microsoft 365 F3

The use rights for the Windows component of Microsoft 365 F3 licenses are further modified as follows:

• Rights to use Windows Enterprise LTSC do not apply.
• Rights to install and use MDOP do not apply.
• Other than the use of Azure Virtual Desktop (refer to Azure Virtual Desktop section of the Microsoft Azure Services Product entry), rights to access and use virtualized instances of Windows only apply to Licensed Users of a shared device with a Qualifying Operating System.

Smartphone and Tablet Devices

Each Microsoft 365 F3 user to whom Customer assigns a User SL may

• Use Microsoft Office for mobile devices for commercial purposes and
• Sign into Microsoft Office on up to five smartphones and five tablets with integrated screens 10.9” diagonally or less.

Microsoft 365 F1 User Mailbox Use Rights

M365 F1 does not include rights to an Exchange mailbox. In order to enable a full Teams experience, including Calendar, M365 F1 licenses may come with the Exchange Online K1 service plan enabled. Although the Exchange Online K1 service plan will provision a mailbox for the user, M365 F1 users are not entitled to use the mailbox. We recommend that you disable Outlook on the web via these steps.