Moving to Ooma
- Thread starter njhowie
- Start date
pb4uski
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
We do, but my mother and three of her neighbors did not have landlines in the basement back when they had landlines.
Montecfo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Well, they could have gotten them for sure. Actually I think we have at least 2 on each floor.
JoeWras
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2012
- Messages
- 11,719
The landline becomes less important every year that goes by. We first kept it so that we could have two people on extensions talk to our darling parents, who had hearing issues. Alas, all parents are now gone.
We also like the idea of having a "home phone" instead of a "Joe" phone, so people could call us as a couple, not as a Joe or Linda. But that seems to be less of a problem now that huddling around a phone with external speaker works pretty well. So friends call Joe and say, "Can you both get on?" Sure.
We still have the GV phone through the OBI for now primarily for 911. It costs us $1.50 per month using Anveo service. The idea is in a panic, pick up the phone and call 911 and the 911 people get EXACT location, even if you had a stroke and can't talk. Cell phones work pretty good, but seconds or minutes can be wasted as they determine the exact location.
One more thing: we can put the cell phones out of sight during the night. This way, we don't hear pings and noises for notifications or messages. Old fashioned phones don't make a sound unless there's a real reason. We have old fashioned phones in the bedroom, one for each side of the bed. Just for emergencies.
That's where we are today. We will probably eventually drop it some day. But heck, $18 a year won't kill us.
We also like the idea of having a "home phone" instead of a "Joe" phone, so people could call us as a couple, not as a Joe or Linda. But that seems to be less of a problem now that huddling around a phone with external speaker works pretty well. So friends call Joe and say, "Can you both get on?" Sure.
We still have the GV phone through the OBI for now primarily for 911. It costs us $1.50 per month using Anveo service. The idea is in a panic, pick up the phone and call 911 and the 911 people get EXACT location, even if you had a stroke and can't talk. Cell phones work pretty good, but seconds or minutes can be wasted as they determine the exact location.
One more thing: we can put the cell phones out of sight during the night. This way, we don't hear pings and noises for notifications or messages. Old fashioned phones don't make a sound unless there's a real reason. We have old fashioned phones in the bedroom, one for each side of the bed. Just for emergencies.
That's where we are today. We will probably eventually drop it some day. But heck, $18 a year won't kill us.
The OBi200 was selling for $50 on Newegg a few days ago, but demand is apparently very high because of everyone working from home. A company rep posted last month on their forum that they’ve had trouble keeping retailers restocked and are trying to improve that.
The OBi200 or 202 is the model to get for Google Voice. The 300-series is intended for businesses and doesn’t support GV.
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OBi200 is not dead, just out of stock. The 300 does not support Google Voice, so only choose if you have another provider.
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BasketCase24
Dryer sheet aficionado
Yes, you can. We did that, and Google Voice (GV) number is our old landline number. Free. Rings to my cell phone, has voicemail, mostly get political calls, spam, etc, It’s the number I give salespeople. There are directions on the internet. It is a little complicated as you have to temporarily port landline number to a cell phone before porting to GV. https://cordcuttingreport.com/port-phone-number-google-voice/
Kroeran
Full time employment: Posting here.
Just gave up ooma and bought DW a handset that plugs into her iPad/iPhone
This exactly! Everyone but friends & family get my Ooma #. And I keep the ringer OFF. It’s worth the few bucks a month to keep SPAM off my cell.
The Cosmic Avenger
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
That's exactly what we use our Google Voice number for -- I give it out for all accounts (utilities, repair/home services, etail, etc.), and it goes straight to voicemail, except for the actual friends and (most) family in my contact list, who will be forwarded to our Vonage home number. And because of this thread, I'm thinking of switching that to Oooma. Also, GV does do texts! I use it for all kinds of verification texts, because when I'm at my computer I don't have to dig my phone out of my pocket, I can see it in my browser!
It's the thing we use to call our learning-from-home high school student who invariably has his cell on mute, forgets it in his room, lets the battery run dry, or about a million other reasons he doesn't hear it when we call.
Our Ooma works great but I should probably cancel it because we use it about once a month. It's only $5 per month (taxes and fees) but that means my monthly call costs $5!
Hermit
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I tried OOMA when I first moved to the mountains about 7 years ago. It didn't work for me. They said my connection had too much jitter. They refunded all my money. I went with Google Voice and it worked better than OOMA, but still not great. All issues cleared up when I moved from Hueghs Net to Viasat for internet service a couple years later.
