Wootalyzer's Pricing Post! - The price of today's woot item is saved here for future reference
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Ooma Telo VoIP Home Phone System
$139.99 + $5 Shipping
Condition: Refurbished

Product List:
- 1 Ooma Telo VoIP Home Phone Service: Free US Calling, Caller ID, Call Waiting, 911, Voicemail

*DISCLAIMER* Wootalyzer! is in no way affiliated with Woot!, and this post may not always be here!

this is the model you have to pay tax/fees on, ~$20-35/year

Anyone know how much configuration you have to do? Or is this simply plug and play?

Can someone please dumb this down for me?

What does it do, how is it used, etc.

Feeling like a tech-tard.

Leslie14 wrote:Can someone please dumb this down for me?

What does it do, how is it used, etc.

Feeling like a tech-tard.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) takes the signal coming from your phone and converts it to the same signal used by your computer to bring you this web page and other data from the internet.

Can I keep my home phone #?

I have an Ooma, a friend does, my business does, and my parents do. It really is nice to not have to pay a phone bill when the home phone gets used so infrequently these days. This is an outstanding price, too (normally around $200-230 for this model). I highly recommend this over any traditional landline or VoIP service.

Product Website

arribasn wrote:this is the model you have to pay tax/fees on, ~$20-35/year

Interesting....have any details?

4 stars at Amazon

And here I thought this was some kind of fancy griddle.

Now I want pancakes.

naannana wrote:Can I keep my home phone #?

Yes. You get a free port with Ooma Premier, or you can port a number without signing up for Ooma Premier for a one time $40 fee.

Unboxing at YouTube

Quick start guide pdf:

http://www.ooma.com/sites/default/files/OomaTeloQSG-2009.pdf

Eh, is it just me or is the product's website not loading?

[MOD: Loads for me]

Bought one off of craigslist. A few hassles getting it to work but well worth it. Went from a 22 dollar local phone bill to a 4 dollar phone bill that allows me to call anywhere in the us. Will pay for itself in about 6 months. Call quality is good and the wife uses it just like the old land-line. The phone companies may go the way of the tower record and blockbuster.

cnet review

Leslie14 wrote:Can someone please dumb this down for me?

What does it do, how is it used, etc.

Feeling like a tech-tard.

A NON-FREE device that works like MagicJack or other Voice Over IP stand alones. This seems to have some cool features, and their is no plan needed to make free calls, BUT you do have to pay taxes (as is shown in the description) Taxes amounted to about $5/mo in my zip code. YMMV.

On the tech side, make sure you have enough data rate, specially on the upstream or it will get garbled, staticky, drop out or just plain can't hear the other person at all.

I paid $199 at Radio Shack 1 yr ago. I stab it. As long as you have high speed internet, It works great. I waited 1 month to port my home number. Now I call FREE!

Thanks Nightghost for the product website.
I found the answer to my question.


"Number porting allows you to transfer your home phone number from you current service provider (whether VoIP or landline) to Ooma. You can port a phone number to the Ooma system for a one-time charge of $39.99 or get free porting request when you purchase a yearly subscription to Ooma Premier."

A hypothetical question: Is this device tied up to your ISP/IP/Geography?

Let's say I go on vacation... Can I take the box with me and plug it in at a hotel (even in a foreign country, maybe), and get all calls made to my phone number ring there + make calls from wherever I am (if overseas) to US numbers for free???

arribasn wrote:this is the model you have to pay tax/fees on, ~$20-35/year

Bummer, but still cheaper than landline. Had my Ooma for just shy of 2 years and it's paid for itself many times over.
We've got a good internet connection so no problems there.
That said, it doesn't have the clarity of a landline but nothing does. (I'm sure some will argue, that's just been my experience.)
I can live with it for the savings.

Just a warning to anyone who is replacing a land line with a VoIP phone, you have to make sure you update your address with your number or else 911 won't know where you are if you do have to call and can't speak with them.

I have this service and stab it. It is a VOIP type phone system like Vonage only a lot cheaper. With the basic service you only pay for the box and then a small amount for tax. Unlimited nation wide calling. Great quality. Simple hookup, ethernet cable into you network, then run a regular phone cord into one of your house jacks and then all your house phones will work. Does not require a special phone. This not like magic jack or Skype that requires a computer to work. I pay the extra $10 a month for the premier service. You then have two lines and my favorite feature the "blacklist", you can program phone numbers that will go directly to voice mail, or get a busy signal, or a messages that says the phone is no longer in service! bloody, high recommend this.

naannana wrote:Can I keep my home phone #?

It says that you should be able to port over your phone number. Logically, you should. When you stop using the phone number at your current telephone provider, your number becomes "open". All that would have to be done is your device get programmed with your current number. I actually work on VoIP networks, including assigning numbers and programming phones.

If only you had the handsets on here!!!

I stab my Ooma by the way. Way better than any other VOIP I have had. My favorite thing is the personalized blacklisting which has saved me from all these political phone calls and my friends at the collection agencies...

About 8 months ago I dumped an ATT landline for an Ooma Hub (a lesser version of the Telo) and like it a lot! I pay the $10 per month for the "Premier" service. It's great having an instant second line and the call blocking is phenomenal. I just log into my Ooma account, look up the call history and click on any numbers I want to block. It's also nice to listen to my voicemail from anywhere via the Internet. No complaints about call quality, but I do notice the unit throttling my download speed when a call is in progress. That's to be expected as it grabs bandwidth for the voice call.

niagol wrote:A NON-FREE device that works like MagicJack or other Voice Over IP stand alones. This seems to have some cool features, and their is no plan needed to make free calls, BUT you do have to pay taxes (as is shown in the description) Taxes amounted to about $5/mo in my zip code. YMMV.

On the tech side, make sure you have enough data rate, specially on the upstream or it will get garbled, staticky, drop out or just plain can't hear the other person at all.

It worked a buzillion time better than "Magic Jack" for me.

I cancelled my home phone last week. First time in almost 50 years I have not had a land line phone. The past 2 years I had it only bcuz my daughter is in the UK....

Skype mobile took care of that for me. $0.02 per minute!

dedwards777 wrote:I have this service and stab it. It is a VOIP type phone system like Vonage only a lot cheaper. With the basic service you only pay for the box and then a small amount for tax. Unlimited nation wide calling. Great quality. Simple hookup, ethernet cable into you network, then run a regular phone cord into one of your house jacks and then all your house phones will work. Does not require a special phone. This not like magic jack or Skype that requires a computer to work. I pay the extra $10 a month for the premier service. You then have two lines and my favorite feature the "blacklist", you can program phone numbers that will go directly to voice mail, or get a busy signal, or a messages that says the phone is no longer in service! bloody, high recommend this.

Do you know if this supports VoIP phones, like a Cisco one? I have happened to acquire one, and would like to use it.

Found a good ooma telo 101 tutorial for those who are miserable about the product like me

Ooma Telo

arribasn wrote:this is the model you have to pay tax/fees on, ~$20-35/year

DocMphd wrote:Interesting....have any details?

The previous model, the Ooma Hub, promised no phone bill EVER. But then the government noticed they were giving away phone service for free and told them that they had to collect tax even without income. So Ooma decided to keep that promise and not require people who bought the original Oooma Hub to pay taxes/fees--Ooma pays those out of pocket. So with the Ooma Telo, they only ask you to pay the taxes/fees that the government requires in your area. The phone service and all features in the non-premier agreement itself are still free of charge. For most areas, the taxes/fees comes out to about $3/mo. Use their tax calculator to see what your's will be.

LEM- wrote:A hypothetical question: Is this device tied up to your ISP/IP/Geography?

Let's say I go on vacation... Can I take the box with me and plug it in at a hotel (even in a foreign country, maybe), and get all calls made to my phone number ring there + make calls from wherever I am (if overseas) to US numbers for free???

First question: No

Second question: Yes

I have a MagicJack. It does the exact same. It only cost $19.95/year vs this for $35-45/year. I even travel with my MagicJack and it works great with hotel phones without any extra charges!!

Wonder why would one get this?

arribasn wrote:this is the model you have to pay tax/fees on, ~$20-35/year

You are required to pay $11.75 per year starting the second year of service

Edit - Apparently I live in a nice low tax zip code! YMMV

And my old phone company found ways to charge me that much in fees a month. Less than a dollar a month is well worth all that you save.

Why not just get a Magic Jack? A lot cheaper.

I paid $160 at Costco on sale about a year ago. It was a deal then, and is still a deal now. I ported my home number to it for $40 about 2 months in, slight hassle and 4 days after they said it would be done, it was. Taxes for me are $12/yr, and don't start until the 2nd year. The first 2 years were included with the unit. The premier service is nice, but I couldn't justify the extra cost. This wont run over a satellite connection, but works good with my wireless. I have Motorola Canopy 900MHz from local ISP (in the boonies) and it works fine for this. I recommend buy. I would if I didn't own one already.

denwolf66 wrote:I paid $199 at Radio Shack 1 yr ago. I stab it. As long as you have high speed internet, It works great. I waited 1 month to port my home number. Now I call FREE!

$40 to port #. $30ish Taxes a year.

Easy explanation: I have one of these. If you have a broadband internet connection, you can have a home phone number you don't need to pay for. Instead of paying a phone company to maintain a phone line, you plug this thing into the wall, and essentially become your own phone company. You pay the government like $11 A YEAR for free local and domestic long distance calls, with caller ID. If you want some fancy features, you pay Ooma a little more, but it's still way less than you're paying your phone company. It's virtually plug-and-play. You just hook it into your router.