Sojourner
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2012
- Messages
- 2,595
The thread about recent upticks in spam/junk calls got me thinking about how my Ooma home phone service works. I ditched my AT&T landline about 4 years ago in favor of an Ooma Telo device and their basic "free" monthly plan. It now costs me about $5/month (regulatory fees and taxes) as opposed to over $40/month when I had the AT&T line.
However... I'm starting to question the actual value of Ooma. Sure, it's only $5/month, but with the free version I can't do anything about the 2-3 spam/junk calls I'm getting every day. I can't even block specific, known spam numbers with Ooma Basic. They only allow that functionality if you upgrade to Ooma Premier, which would essentially triple the monthly cost ($15). Even though those spam/junk calls annoy me, I'm not sure paying $120 more per year to silence them would be a good value for the money.
With all that said, does anyone know of a good, free (or very low cost) VOIP service that allows for automatic spam/junk call blocking? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be willing to pay more than $10 per month for such a service, including all taxes and fees. I could pay $15/month for this with Ooma, after all, and I've decided against that for now.
Two other related questions, if you'd like to chime in on them:
1) How valuable is spam/junk call blocking to you, in dollars per month?
2) Do you place any value in having a landline-like phone (VOIP or traditional) at your primary residence, or do you simply use your cell phone for all calling?
However... I'm starting to question the actual value of Ooma. Sure, it's only $5/month, but with the free version I can't do anything about the 2-3 spam/junk calls I'm getting every day. I can't even block specific, known spam numbers with Ooma Basic. They only allow that functionality if you upgrade to Ooma Premier, which would essentially triple the monthly cost ($15). Even though those spam/junk calls annoy me, I'm not sure paying $120 more per year to silence them would be a good value for the money.
With all that said, does anyone know of a good, free (or very low cost) VOIP service that allows for automatic spam/junk call blocking? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be willing to pay more than $10 per month for such a service, including all taxes and fees. I could pay $15/month for this with Ooma, after all, and I've decided against that for now.
Two other related questions, if you'd like to chime in on them:
1) How valuable is spam/junk call blocking to you, in dollars per month?
2) Do you place any value in having a landline-like phone (VOIP or traditional) at your primary residence, or do you simply use your cell phone for all calling?