Alternatives to Ooma

[easysurfer]

Forgot to mention, I also kinda like the Ooma Telo box that also functions similar to an old fashioned answering machine with real buttons. More friendly, IMO than having to retrieve voicemail messages with the handset.

Of course, I probably could hook up my old answering machine (what I do now). But then that's one more item to hook up.

 

[easysurfer]

Appreciate the feedback and completely understand your reasoning.

One comment on the telephone number. If you have a gmail account you have the option of picking a GV number for free. So, no need to port a number unless you want a particular number, like your current one.

You're welcome. I decided to keep my landline number. The port (usually $39) was waived as part of joining with Ooma Premier for one year. Ooma gave the option to pick a temporary number (free) and keep that or do a port. Right now I have the temp as I wait for the port. Both numbers work at the moment.

 

[cathy63]

Forgot to mention, I also kinda like the Ooma Telo box that also functions similar to an old fashioned answering machine with real buttons. More friendly, IMO than having to retrieve voicemail messages with the handset.

Of course, I probably could hook up my old answering machine (what I do now). But then that's one more item to hook up.

This made me realize that I haven't listened to a voicemail in at least a couple of years now. Google Voice sends me a transcription by email, and I just read them. To each his own though. I'm glad you found a solution that will work for you and save you $60/mo. That's $720/yr that you can spend on something a lot more fun than ATT phone service!

 

[pb4uski]

We pay for Ooma Premier and had it switched to our old landline #. We have a white list/contacts and everything else goes to voicemail. It isn't the cheapest solution but it is very easy.

+1 the added features of Ooma Premier make it worth it for us and I don't mind spending $15/month for a "landline"... a phone number that we have had for over 30 year and is one of the primary contact numbers for friends and family.

If we couldn't afford it it woudl be a different story, but we can.

 

[easysurfer]

This made me realize that I haven't listened to a voicemail in at least a couple of years now. Google Voice sends me a transcription by email, and I just read them. To each his own though. I'm glad you found a solution that will work for you and save you $60/mo. That's $720/yr that you can spend on something a lot more fun than ATT phone service!

I'm old fashioned, that I like like a physical answering machine type box. I did review a voicemail with Ooma with my handset while setting up and the voicemail tree gave me flashbacks Voicemail at Megacorp .

Can't agree more about saving that extra $60/month! Now, I'll just chuckle when ATT sends letters (more than they already do) wanting me to go back to their plans.

+1 the added features of Ooma Premier make it worth it for us and I don't mind spending $15/month for a "landline"... a phone number that we have had for over 30 year and is one of the primary contact numbers for friends and family.

If we couldn't afford it it woudl be a different story, but we can.

Exactly. $15/month for a landline with unlimited domestic calling does have a nicer ring than $75/month .

 

[RetMD21]

We kept the old answering machine and it takes the calls from our whitelisted contacts. I try to remember to turn if off when we leave town so that al messages go to Ooma for easy retrieval.

One thing I haven't set up with Ooma is call forwarding to a cell. You can set this to be active only when the Ooma device is down ( like comcast or power is out) I suggested to DW that she might want it forwarded to her phone

 

[easysurfer]

While we are on the subject of call blocking and call blockers, I stumbled on a new kid on the block device during my Amazon browsing called the "Ultimate Call Blocker". There a LAN and and a WiFi version.

One thing which this devices does is manage the whitelist/blacklist online, which other blockers like Sentry and the Digitone and the creator of that big Red Button blocker do not.

The blocker is made by hqtelecom. The first blocker I ever got was by them before I got a Sentry and the blocker by hqtelecom didn't work out well. But if this Ultimate Call Blocker does as they claim, then could be something which Sojourner might be looking for in the original post.

https://www.hqtelecom.com/ublocker-lan

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LC1W32Q

I already committed to one year of Ooma Premier. A good thing or else curiosity might get the better of me and I'd be trying out another darn call blocker .

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

While we are on the subject of call blocking and call blockers, I stumbled on a new kid on the block device during my Amazon browsing called the "Ultimate Call Blocker". There a LAN and and a WiFi version.

One thing which this devices does is manage the whitelist/blacklist online, which other blockers like Sentry and the Digitone and the creator of that big Red Button blocker do not.

The blocker is made by hqtelecom. The first blocker I ever got was by them before I got a Sentry and the blocker by hqtelecom didn't work out well. But if this Ultimate Call Blocker does as they claim, then could be something which Sojourner might be looking for in the original post.

https://www.hqtelecom.com/ublocker-lan



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LC1W32Q

I already committed to one year of Ooma Premier. A good thing or else curiosity might get the better of me and I'd be trying out another darn call blocker .

It'll probably be like every blocker out there...it will be THE BEST!!! For a little while and then the scammers will (are) two steps ahead and it will suck like all the rest. The number spoofing has really made things very difficult to have a reliable blocker.

 

[SmallCityDave]

We have magic jack for the past 7+ years we really like it, we pay $2.50 per month and we get maybe 1 spam call a week.

 

[easysurfer]

It'll probably be like every blocker out there...it will be THE BEST!!! For a little while and then the scammers will (are) two steps ahead and it will suck like all the rest. The number spoofing has really made things very difficult to have a reliable blocker.

I've followed hqtelecom for sometime. They do seem to hype their products claiming their blocker is the best compared to everyone else. If this latest and greatest does like they say, the device would be a valid competitor with the can manage lists with computer.

Agree that blocking that is not whitelist (only allow known good callers in) based will always have limitations against those scammers.

 

[euro]

Can't agree more about saving that extra $60/month! Now, I'll just chuckle when ATT sends letters (more than they already do) wanting me to go back to their plans.
Exactly. $15/month for a landline with unlimited domestic calling does have a nicer ring than $75/month .

FWIW,
Ooma actually has VERY decent international rates also.

Easysurfer, congrats on saving $60/mo. I do have to ask though: was your $75 ATT line a VOIP line or a TRUE landline? If the latter, then of course, you ARE giving up the ability to make phone calls during power/internet outages (one of the main reasons why some folks do hang on to their landline). I have switched to VOIP too, but I was just curious as to whether that entered into your decision.

 

[easysurfer]

FWIW,
Ooma actually has VERY decent international rates also.

Easysurfer, congrats on saving $60/mo. I do have to ask though: was your $75 ATT line a VOIP line or a TRUE landline? If the latter, then of course, you ARE giving up the ability to make phone calls during power/internet outages (one of the main reasons why some folks do hang on to their landline). I have switched to VOIP too, but I was just curious as to whether that entered into your decision.

All my calls are domestic so the international part doesn't apply to me. Thanks for the tip anyhow.

My $75 ATT line is a TRUE landline. I hung on to the landline for so long mainly not because of fear of power outages I had a bad experience with VOIP. This was awhile ago. Don't the math at $75/month (or $900/year) tipped the scale for me.

I do have a cell for emergencies if the internet goes down. Plus, do have an UPS backup to give me a little time in case of power outage due to storm.

 

[easysurfer]

Quick update. I've been assimilated to Ooma. Number got ported over today.

I had set my call blocking on Ooma to High (block anonymous, blacklisted, known spammers and suspected spammers) to see how well that works.

Then I decided to retire my Sentry call blocker and trusty old fashioned answering machine.

So, as I was deleting all the numbers off my Sentry call blocker, guess what? I got a robocall to my Ooma box .

Oh well, enough for playing nice. I set my Ooma call blocking to screen everyone not on my contact list. Now the silence is deafening .

 

[Cut-Throat]

So, as I was deleting all the numbers off my Sentry call blocker, guess what? I got a robocall to my Ooma box .

Reminds me of when I first got my OBi200 and I was setting it up where we winter in the Bahamas.... I hooked it up and made a call to my Home Phone answering machine and it worked. I then hung up the phone and it rang and I answered it to a Robocall that had a recorded Message that said "Congratulations, you just won a Free trip to the Bahamas" ...

 

[easysurfer]

Reminds me of when I first got my OBi200 and I was setting it up where we winter in the Bahamas.... I hooked it up and made a call to my Home Phone answering machine and it worked. I then hung up the phone and it rang and I answered it to a Robocall that had a recorded Message that said "Congratulations, you just won a Free trip to the Bahamas" ...

Irony does have a humbling effect, doesn't it?

 

[Animorph]

I use the OBi200 with my old number ported to PhonePower. They have an OBi deal for $35/year. That gives me 9-1-1, call blocking, voicemail, and I can also call from my laptop or mobile phone. We've had this for maybe five years now. It's been perfectly reliable with the OBi200, whereas the old OBi device sometimes needed a reboot.

The spoofed numbers are a problem. I ended up having to send every call with my prefix directly to voicemail unless they were in my contacts list. Hopefully regulators can fix this in the future.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

No Land Line, no Ooma no nothing, just Cell, $60 for 2 phones unlimited everything no throttling worth worrying about. T-Mobile 55+ Plan. Grandfathered. Includes Tethering. No contest.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I use the OBi200 with my old number ported to PhonePower. They have an OBi deal for $35/year. That gives me 9-1-1, call blocking, voicemail, and I can also call from my laptop or mobile phone. We've had this for maybe five years now. It's been perfectly reliable with the OBi200, whereas the old OBi device sometimes needed a reboot.

The spoofed numbers are a problem. I ended up having to send every call with my prefix directly to voicemail unless they were in my contacts list. Hopefully regulators can fix this in the future.

I use my OBi200 with Google Voice and it's completely free!

 

[Cut-Throat]

No Land Line, no Ooma no nothing, just Cell, $60 for 2 phones unlimited everything no throttling worth worrying about. T-Mobile 55+ Plan. Grandfathered. Includes Tethering. No contest.

Sure, but it probably does not work overseas.... I also have a Great cell phone plan, but cell phone service does not cover all the bases, unless you stay at home and don't go anywhere.

 

[Sunset]

We use Google Voice and the Obi-200 VoIP adapter for totally free landline phone service. IIRC, the Obi device sells for around $50 on Amazon. Set-up with GV is easy and well documented. Calls in the US and Canada are free and most international calls are 1-2 cents per minute. As mentioned earlier, GV is already free on PCs, tablets, smartphones, etc. The Obi-200 VoIP adapter just enables use with your existing landline handsets.

After 6 years, we rarely get robo/telemarketing calls of any kind. Google's spam call filtering appears to be extremely good. If one does get through, it's quite easy to block the number and report it as spam.

You get all the usual features like voicemail, call forwarding, call blocking, conference calling, caller ID, etc. One feature I really like is getting a notification on my mobile phone when I miss a call at home, including the voicemail transcription as a text. No 911 service though, so you'll need a cell for emergencies, or pay a small fee.

I also did this setup with google voice and connected it to my obi , so I can make & receive phone calls free in USA and make calls to Canada free.
I don't pay the 911 fee, as we also have a super discounted regular phone line.
I plugged a 4 phone set into my obi, and have my obi phones all over the house (along with our regular phones).

The obi via googleVoice gets zero spam phone calls in the 4 months I've had it, vs our regular phone line gets about 4 per day.

 

[Sunset]

I also have an Ooma and Pay the $5 a month.... My wife likes it, so we keep it.... When we travel to other countries we take along an OBI200 (about $50) and is the size of a hockey puck. Connect a Google Voice number to it (also Free) and you're good to go. Not totally Plug and Play, you have to set it up using the OBItalk site.... But not hard...



Just plug in a Phone and connect to a network.... We've used in Australia, Bahamas and recently Hawaii... Works great... Completely Free after you buy it.


https://www.obitalk.com/info/products/obi200

Using the obi:
When you travel, do you plug into a network with a wire, or do you use some wireless usb type thing to connect to the network (like a hotel would want) ?
Do you bring your own small phone to plug into the obi , like maybe a handset only type thing ?

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Sure, but it probably does not work overseas.... I also have a Great cell phone plan, but cell phone service does not cover all the bases, unless you stay at home and don't go anywhere.

En Contrare, it has worked for us world wide, as long as you select a proper GSM cell service and not an archaic CDMA based system.

 

[Cut-Throat]

En Contrare, it has worked for us world wide, as long as you select a proper GSM cell service and not an archaic CDMA based system.

No, it depends on the Plan and by specific country.... I doubt very much your plan will work in the Bahamas (which is a tough one).... I lived there 3 winters and while most work with roaming charges of $3 a minute!!


"Many US and Canadian carriers have roaming agreements with Batelco, the GSM cellular operator in the Bahamas. Therefore, while most phones will work, the rates are approximately $3.00 per minute plus tax for all in and out calls. Therefore, it makes sense to either purchase a local SIM card (if your phone is GSM) or to rent or buy an inexpensive GSM handset. Rates are between $0.15-$0.33 per minute for local calls and incoming calls and about a dollar more for outgoing calls to the USA or Canada (hint: ask people to call you back)."

 

[Cut-Throat]

Using the obi:
When you travel, do you plug into a network with a wire, or do you use some wireless usb type thing to connect to the network (like a hotel would want) ?
Do you bring your own small phone to plug into the obi , like maybe a handset only type thing ?

Yes, we plug into the router with an Ethernet Cable. I also bring along a portable wireless router, in case the unit we rent does not have a router. I also bring a very small cordless phone.

 

[RetMD21]

Ooma plays known or suspected spammers and my blacklist a number disconnected message. I have it send anonymous and not otherwise classified calls to voice mail.

I finally gave up the landline after it was out for 3 days when I had power and cable internet. I thought that was strange