My Ooma VOIP phone

[modhatter]

Thought I'd post a quick note about my new Ooma Voip phone. It has only been a week, but so far so good.
I paid $179. for it at Costco. Had my number ported over to it, and cancelled my AT&T land line and other long distance service. No more monthly phone bills. Only about $4.00 a month for taxes. Sounds good. Can't really tell any difference in sound quality.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ooma has a nice package. They are onto their second version now as I recall.

For most people, an Ooma phone will be just fine.

Why should anyone pay more ?

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

If you can still find the old model (the Hub and Scout) for sale, I think it's even better, because you don't have to pay taxes. I haven't paid anything for my phone service since June '09. Ooma is one of the best things I have ever purchased.

 

[pimpmyretirement]

I am setting mine up right now, bought it last night.

Switching from two cell phones on a plan that cost $65+ a month, to this ooma and two t-mobile prepaid phones.

With the ooma and contract cancellation fees, I've got a 10 month payback period, but then I'll be saving $500 a year.

If I can keep my wife from burning the pre-paid cell minutes, it will be even more.

 

[Darryl]

We weren't quite ready to cancel the home phone with kids still home.

Thanks for the prompt!

I've been considering ooma or vonage or magic jack, for some time. Bought ooma today and very easy install. Will take about 5 months to recoup my $199.

 

[pimpmyretirement]

Ooma appears to integrate with the local 911 system. I'm not sure if it is as favorable as a land line is for 911, but probably better than a cell.

The voice quality is just fine. Now I just need to decide if I get the Ooma branded phone or a cheap wireless phone. Decisions, decisions...

 

[missionfinder]

I've been considering it for a while, but have concerns about VOIP security:

Security Threats In VoIP

Seems to be very vulnerable and I would be afraid of talking to my banker, credit card company or advisor over VOIP.

Can someone here convince me I'm paranoid because I'd love to make the leap to VOIP but hesitate over security.

 

[albundyz]

I bought my Ooma a month ago, so far, very happy.

***********
fwiw, I walked into Best Buy and they matched the price for Ooma that was offered by Fry's.

had to wait 3 weeks for them to port over my prior ATT phone number. it cost $40, but was worth it so I don't have to listen to my wife complaining about a new phone number.

my break even will be 9 months. First month's bill was $3.47

 

[modhatter]

Pimpmyretirement. That's the setup I have now. I have the Ooma for home and a prepaid T-Mobile for on the road. The T-Mobile cost me $100 for 1100 minutes, which is more than I need for the year. Very seldom use it, except when I travel. That makes my total phone bill for the year about $150. I like that. But I can't smile too big, cause I recently switched to Comcast Cable at a cost of $30 a month, but after the initial six months are up, they will raise it to $60 a month cause I don't have cable TV. I have satellite and won't change it.

We just got U-Verse in my area, so when my six months is up I may change to that if they have the one year $30 (internet only) a month at that time. Now if I could just bring myself to let my $100 a month satellite TV subscription go, I"d be doing good. What ever happened to the $30 a month cable bill?

 

[Dimsumkid]

What's the basic requirements to use one of these? My landline costs $30 now for under 10 calls per month. I'm gonna assume I need to have Internet service.

 

[MasterBlaster]

What's the basic requirements to use one of these? My landline costs $30 now for under 10 calls per month. I'm gonna assume I need to have Internet service.

You'll need some sort of broadband internet service. Dial-up won't work. And, of course, power to the device.

 

[Dimsumkid]

You'll need some sort of broadband internet service. Dial-up won't work. And, of course, power to the device.

Thanks, just trying to determine what's needed. If basic AT&T broadband Internet works, I can get it for $15 -20/mo. Cheaper than landline AT&T phone service.

 

[modhatter]

You need to have a minimum download speed of about 1 mg. and upload speed of at least 250 kps. for the Ooma to work properly.

 

[mn54]

Are there different types of Ooma? What is a Telo, Hub, and scout? What do you need for a basic home phone? I'm planning on replacing my land line with a VOIP. How does Ooma compare to the other options?

 

[pimpmyretirement]

Modhatter, cable is expensive! Last time I lived someplace with cable was about 10 years ago. If I had it, I'd do nothing but watch it. I recently cancelled my Netflix subscription for the same reason, after I found myself watching the denise richards reality show. Ouch...

Wish I'd thought to ask best buy to price match on the Ooma. Paid 199, heard it's sold as cheap as $179 though Cosco.

The Telo is what I bought. Not sure what the others are for.

I looked into their little handset, the Amazon reviews were not favorable. I ordered a cheap cordless phone instead.

From what I can tell, Ooma quality is as good as you can get from home VOIP. Magic jack is cheaper, but has a higher yearly fee and must be connected to a computer that is on. A coworker also told me Magic Jack won't connect to the conference line system my company uses. The Ooma will.

I don't have experience with any other home VOIP solution. I briefly looked at verizon, but a year of service was going to be as much as the Ooma.

 

[chinaco]

Looks like Amazon has an Ooma Telo deal for $198 right now.

There is another option Nettalk Duo for about $70 (includes 1st year of service). There is a $30/year fee for subsequent years of service.

 

[easysurfer]

I've got both a MagicJack and Nettalk (TK6000, before the Duo). Been satisfied with both of them. Opted for MagicJack over Ooma because of the portability (use the MagicJack on my laptop when I travel to avoid burning the prepaid minutes on my cellphone) and the $19.95 trial price hooked me in. Got the TK6000 because didn't like the MagicJack's performance and had the free for life offer of the TK6000. (The MagicJack seems to perform better for me now -- few dropped calls like in the past).
I still have a regular landline to receive calls, but when I call out, I use my Tk6000.
I know, seems like making more work for myself than necessary, but I've grown used to my setup and it does save some $$.

Never tried Ooma, but have always read positive reviews of it.

 

[MasterBlaster]

You need to have a minimum download speed of about 1 mg. and upload speed of at least 250 kps. for the Ooma to work properly.

I assume you meant to post download speed of 1 Mbps and an upload speed of 250 kbps. Is that what you meant ?

I have no info on the Ooma but I suspect that it will work just fine at rates much less than you posted.

It's only voice that they carry and that doesn't take much bandwidth.

 

[tryan]

Glad to hear ooma is catching on ... was wonder how long the ponzi scheme will last (as the company bleeds cash to buy minutes on the baby bells).

Mine has already paid for itself (16 months n'counting). AND no taxes ... yahoo!

 

[Dimsumkid]

Glad to hear ooma is catching on ... was wonder how long the ponzi scheme will last (as the company bleeds cash to buy minutes on the baby bells).

Mine has already paid for itself (16 months n'counting). AND no taxes ... yahoo!

I'm not sure thats the worst ponzi scheme. There's a handful of people still renting old rotary dial phones out there at $10/mo! Guess these people never bothered to look at the details.

 

[nwsteve]

Noticing some comments on the price of land line in another thread, I thought I would bump this thread.
I installed Ooma for my business line last Fall. I have no issues with it outside of losing service whenever my cable provider looses internet service (windstorm, car takes out pole, etc). My monthly cost is less than $5 for taxes and 911. Since I was paying nearly 90/month, my payback was less than 3 months. Service includes free LD in lower 48, call forwarding, call id, etc.
Ooma has a referral promo going on now that allows new users to buy for $149 (I got mine from Costco at 199 but with a couple months of free Premier).
PM me if you want the referral code.
The Ooma is our remaining land line, since we ported our house line to the cell about a month ago.
Telecom costs continue to offer some good opportunities for cut monthly costs
Nwsteve

 

[ejw93]

OOMA has been pretty good to us as our replacement land line. Price is $3.78/month (for 911 response/taxes) including VoiceMail, CallWaiting, unlimited calling and long distance. OOMA is wired in to the wall jack, providing a dial tone to all jacks in the house using any regular Ma Bell phone connected to a wall jack. OOMA and our cable modem are also powered by a UPS (cost about $60) so we will not lose our dial tone in a power outage.

Only downers are:

1) OOMA line does not work reliably as a fax machine (outgoing). Have not tried incoming yet.
2) Neighbors using Cox Digital Telephone as their land line cannot call my house number. Note that this is only neighbors. Numerous chats/time spent w/ both Cox and OOMA have been unable to resolve this. People using Cell, POTS, or outside our neighborhood on Cox Digital Phone have no problems calling us.

We've decided we're willing to live with both #1 and #2 to save over 30 bucks/month. OOMA box has already paid for itself (started October 2011).

 

[marko]

We've had Vonage for 7 years now with nary a hiccup. $19 plus tax for the 500 minute plan, of which we use about 200 mins.

We love the ability to take our Vonage modem with us to our house in Europe...friends can call us from the US with a local call.

 

[pb4uski]

OOMA has been pretty good to us as our replacement land line. Price is $3.78/month (for 911 response/taxes) including VoiceMail, CallWaiting, unlimited calling and long distance. OOMA is wired in to the wall jack, providing a dial tone to all jacks in the house using any regular Ma Bell phone connected to a wall jack. OOMA and our cable modem are also powered by a UPS (cost about $60) so we will not lose our dial tone in a power outage.

Only downers are:

1) OOMA line does not work reliably as a fax machine (outgoing). Have not tried incoming yet.
2) Neighbors using Cox Digital Telephone as their land line cannot call my house number. Note that this is only neighbors. Numerous chats/time spent w/ both Cox and OOMA have been unable to resolve this. People using Cell, POTS, or outside our neighborhood on Cox Digital Phone have no problems calling us.

We've decided we're willing to live with both #1 and #2 to save over 30 bucks/month. OOMA box has already paid for itself (started October 2011).

+1 We have been using Ooma for over a year now and are happy with it. While we don't have our Ooma powering our wall jacks, we have a cordless base unit with 5 rabbits that we had from before Ooma and still use.

One annoying thing is that we do get occasional, random touch tone sounds during calls that both parties can hear and overrides the conversation. I did a bit of research on this at one time and it had something to do with the Ooma software misinterpreting spoken sounds and trying to convert them to touch tone sounds or something like that. While it is a bit annoying and I hope they fix it, I am willing to tolerate it for saving $30 a month.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I've had great luck with my OOMA as well. I have problems calling my brother next door, but the call always goes thru, it just takes a bit longer. I am sure its due to the cable company IP routing.

Occasionally OOMA is slow if I press DELETE on a voice mail, or slow to play. I don't know if this is on their end or mine.

I don't think I've ever had issues with voice quality. I have the free service and miss the bells and whistles sometimes. But what the heck, its free!