Bought one of these last time it was on Woot. I have not been able to get it to work properly and Customer Service is incredibly slow and unhelpful. Outgoing calls work fine but when I get an incoming call, 70% of the time I pick up the phone and hear rapid clicking sounds and the Ooma reboots itself. The caller tells me it keeps ringing on their end and does not go to my voicemail. This problem has been replicated with customer service and though the tests they do with my ISP pass with flying colors they still do not do anything about it. Even though they experienced the problem first hand, the Indian says to me, "I understand your problem but it would be hard for us to catch the problem happening." That blew my mind considering it had just happened minutes earlier with the same guy.

Anyways...as I step off my soap box, the sound quality is pretty good when the calls connect. Much better than the magicJack I replaced it with. Callers with the magicJack kept getting dropped audio. My Ooma problem seems to be very unique as I've searched for others with similar problems. So if it worked all the time and I didn't have to deal with hour long get-nowhere conversations with CS, then I'd be very happy with it.

johnsonium wrote:Personally, I keep a telegraph line in the house in case the land line fails. In addition, I keep some wood, matches, and a blanket to make smoke signals in case the telegraph machine goes out.

Don't forget about carrier pigeons!!

cgstuff wrote:Do you have a data only line? Our DSL is through Century Link so the home phone is apparently on the same line. I bought one last time and tried to hook it up. I was told by Century Link that it would only work if I have a "data only" line and they would charge me $15 more per month to change. Kind of defeats the purpose of buying the unit. It is still here in a box and I need to figure out what to do with it! Thanks!

eh? The ooma box sends ones and zeroes AKA data on the modem side.
It is possible that your connection is not 'always on' I suppose but the line is still just data.
Did you actually try using ooma on it? You will likely need to setup the PPPoE if you put it in front of your router, otherwise put it behind the router and turn on QoS on your router.

What they really mean is that if you drop your phone service then they will charge you more for DSL only, right?
There is no technical reason to prevent the Ooma box working.

For those of you who are still on a copper land line and are considering moving to VOIP. Here are a few things you need to know and consider so you know what you are getting into. Yes it is cheaper and has lots of nice features that Verizon and AT&T and other traditional phone company charge you an arm and a leg to get. However it not really free, you do loose a few important things depending on your situation.

First, once your number is transferred to the VOIP service and I do not care which one, it is no longer portable. You number stays with the service from that time on. Reason is this, e911 is not portable, and right now all the Telco share a common e911 clearing house. This is not the case with VIOP each VIOP company handles there only e911 services. There is a lot more to this than what I am explaining, but once you move your number to a VOIP company it stays with that company. The google voice idea someone presented is a good work around to this.

Next, if the VIOP hardware does not have a batteries in it then you loose all phone support when the power goes out. In the case of this product, it hooks to your cable modem or internet terminal device and if it does not run on batteries then you will not have service. Even if your unit does have batteries they only last a short period of time depending on any numbers of things like the phone in your house since most of them all need the 48 volts from the copper lines to operate. So, be warn in power outages you might not be able to call e911 if you have an emergency. Also, not all cell towers have battery or Diesel backup power so they can go dead in power outage especially long outages that do occur.

Also many time most ISP are not fully battery backup, the main office might be, but a remote location with cable repeater my go dead even if your VIOP hardware is on a UPS you are still not getting a e911 call out if it is an emergency

Depending on where you live the above may not be important, however if you live somewhere that you do not have easy access to another phone this could be a serious issue which is something you take for granted with your land line, which is regulated by the government and the phone companies are required to support and the VOIP companies are not required to support.

RobertBruce wrote:Don't forget: In emergencies these won't work when the power is out. We've had several massive fires in town. Power was out, cell phone towers destroyed. Old fashion corded phone? worked just fine because they get power from their copper line....

If you're going to go VOIP and use one of these, it's in your best interest to buy a decent UPS and hook your ATA (the "Ooma" in this case), your cable or DSL modem, your router, and your WIRELESS PHONE BASE STATION to this (if that's how you connect). Most of the time when the power goes out at your house, you still have cable or DSL, just no way to access it.

sspier wrote:I have six extension phones in my home - bedrooms, family room, kitchen etc.- does this unit only connect to one extension or can it connect centrally to all?

Are you referring to a phone system that has multiple handsets? If so, then this will work as long as the main unit is plugged into the Ooma.

will01gt wrote:That is great advise, every household should have 1 old school phone around for emergencies ....

Cell phone towers destroyed? LOL what?

gpalermo wrote:First, once your number is transferred to the VOIP service and I do not care which one, it is no longer portable. You number stays with the service from that time on.

Uhh, I'm not so sure about that. I already had VOIP for several years with another company when I purchased my Ooma, and I was able to keep the same number, no problem.

Seroc99 wrote:Can anyone briefly explain the difference between this and MagicJack? that's 19.95 a year and this is $139 flat fee, plus taxes on the call. what's better or what more do you get with this thing?

i have been using this for 2 years!! no problems at all. sound quality excellent. magic jack requires your computer to be on. this works exactly like your traditional phone system and uses plain old off the shelf phones!

thesilverring wrote:eh? The ooma box sends ones and zeroes AKA data on the modem side.
It is possible that your connection is not 'always on' I suppose but the line is still just data.
Did you actually try using ooma on it? You will likely need to setup the PPPoE if you put it in front of your router, otherwise put it behind the router and turn on QoS on your router.

What they really mean is that if you drop your phone service then they will charge you more for DSL only, right?
There is no technical reason to prevent the Ooma box working.

Agreed. It sounds like their phone company is trying to pull a fast one.

johnsonium wrote:I've had T-Mobile @Home for 2.5 years and it works perfectly and there is no out of the ordinary ring pattern.

Ummm, yes, there most certainly IS! Why in the world would I have made that statement if it weren't the case! T-Mobile is aware of it!!

For those of you who have this service, and do not have the premium service, what is your monthly cost, since they say you still have to pay the surcharge like e911 and applicable taxes on calls. The last time I checked the taxes are bases on the cost of the call in this case the call is zero cost so zero cost times some tax % is zero, but they make it sound like you will still pay taxes what are those taxes

I bought the refurbished Ooma Hub from here. It arrived and appeared to be brand new. It works great. Anyone with a reasonably low jitter rate on their line should consider this to replace the home phone.

kgrrr wrote:i have been using this for 2 years!! no problems at all. sound quality excellent. magic jack requires your computer to be on. this works exactly like your traditional phone system and uses plain old off the shelf phones!

The main difference is you don't have to leave a computer on to use your home phone.

gpalermo wrote:For those of you who have this service, and do not have the premium service, what is your monthly cost, since they say you still have to pay the surcharge like e911 and applicable taxes on calls. The last time I checked the taxes are bases on the cost of the call in this case the call is zero cost so zero cost times some tax % is zero, but they make it sound like you will still pay taxes what are those taxes

I do not have premium as I have google voice forward to my ooma and really don't use any of the features. I am playing $3.47 a month in fees/taxes.

sspier wrote:I have six extension phones in my home - bedrooms, family room, kitchen etc.- does this unit only connect to one extension or can it connect centrally to all?

You can back feed all of your jacks in your house but I don't know how many individual devices the ringer on this can handle. You can purchase a phone ringer booster that will enable up to 50 phones. It is a plug and play unit that goes between the Oomba and the phone jack you are back feeding to.

speedshark wrote:Uhh, I'm not so sure about that. I already had VOIP for several years with another company when I purchased my Ooma, and I was able to keep the same number, no problem.

Who was the company, did you have VIOP with Verzion FIOS or AT&T if that was the case then you were still under the central e911 system that was establish many years ago. This system was set up to route your call to the proper local e911 service based on the address that was register in the database.

I know if you go to Vonage or Comcast or other Cable operator's VIOP services and want to move to another they can not transfer your number with the e911 services. They may be able to do this in the future but today it does not work

hail2skins wrote:I do not have premium as I have google voice forward to my ooma and really don't use any of the features. I am playing $3.47 a month in fees/taxes.

thanks that is the real base cost above the cost of the hardware, it is not really fee as they would like you to believe.

gpalermo wrote:

First, once you number is transferred to the VOIP service and I do not care which one, it is no longer portable. You number stays with the service from that time on. Reason is this, e911 is not portable, and right now all the Telco share a common e911 clearing house. This is not the case with VIOP each VIOP company handles there only e911 services. There is a lot more to this than what I am explaining, but once you move your number to a VOIP company it stays with that company. The google voice idea someone presented is a good work around to this.

I don't believe this is true. There are many people that have ported their number over to Vonage and then from Vonage to Ooma. There are plenty of complaints about it in the forums, but it works for most people without a hitch.

sarahjoe wrote:Nettalk is better than this system and it is still fairly new so you don't have to pay taxes and fees. Big brother has already latched onto Ooma, so you have to pay taxes and surcharges the same way you do with Vonage. The Duo from Nettalk is also more portable, no computer needed, and is available now from Walmart online (90 day return policy) and is $69.95 initial cost (includes first year) for unlimited to U.S. and Canada and $29.95 each year after. I promise I have no affiliation with Nettalk, I just love it and it saves me a bunch of cash, so figured I would share.....

How is the call quality and connection consistency with the Nettalk? I had considered their TK6000 device (since it didn't require a PC to function) back when we jumped to MJ but it didn't seem to be a mature enough device. With all the features that Ooma has pushed to the Premier service tier, as well as the appx $40/year in taxes, I'm wondering why the Ooma is better than the Nettalk Duo. Anyone tried both??

RobertBruce wrote:Don't forget: In emergencies these won't work when the power is out. We've had several massive fires in town. Power was out, cell phone towers destroyed. Old fashion corded phone? worked just fine because they get power from their copper line....

Considering that the overwhelming majority of people these days don't even OWN a corded phone, this is a moot point. Even though a cordless handset is battery powered, the base still has to be plugged into an AC outlet to work.

nycesq wrote:Does anyone know how the basic (free) service works with a Google Voice number? Can you disable the Ooma voicemail so that the Goole Voice voicemail will answer?

That's exactly what I do. I have google voice and use it as my answering service instead of the ooma unit. I've had it for almost two years now. I started in Texas and now moved to California with the same unit and number. Just plug into your router once you get internet service and you are good to go. Time warner was charging $40 a month, $480 per year so the unit basically paid for itself in less than 6 months.

gpalermo wrote:Who was the company, did you have VIOP with Verzion FIOS or AT&T if that was the case then you were still under the central e911 system that was establish many years ago. This system was set up to route your call to the proper local e911 service based on the address that was register in the database.

I know if you go to Vonage or Comcast or other Cable operator's VIOP services and want to move to another they can not transfer your number with the e911 services. They may be able to do this in the future but today it does not work

Take a look at the forums of Ooma/etc., many have moved from Vonage to Ooma.

gpalermo wrote:For those of you who have this service, and do not have the premium service, what is your monthly cost, since they say you still have to pay the surcharge like e911 and applicable taxes on calls. The last time I checked the taxes are bases on the cost of the call in this case the call is zero cost so zero cost times some tax % is zero, but they make it sound like you will still pay taxes what are those taxes

I have had Ooma (sans premium service) for nearly 3 years now, and have not paid a single red cent to ANYONE in that time.

jackfinn98 wrote:That's exactly what I do. I have google voice and use it as my answering service instead of the ooma unit.

I use Gmail and Calendar and Finance and Docs and Maps and Voice and then I, really, start to get a little nervous that so much of my digital life funnels through the Google/Skynet offices.

Does that not bug people?

dmax801 wrote:I use Gmail and Calendar and Finance and Docs and Maps and Voice and then I, really, start to get a little nervous that so much of my digital life funnels through the Google/Skynet offices.

Does that not bug people?

Your post has been forwarded to Google for review.

Relax man. They use goats -- ACTUAL GOATS -- to do their grass. How evil can they be? Goats are adorable.

drunkturkey wrote:Take a look at the forums of Ooma/etc., many have moved from Vonage to Ooma.

I stand corrected, it sound like ooma will do this for you at a cost obviously

http://ooma.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/147/related/1

It appears they are fighting the battle for you since in the past I know Vonage and others refuse to help and pointed the fingers back to the old telco and the e911 law to the reason why it could not move. They rather give you a new number than port your number from an existing VOIP provider.

However, not sure why you would have to pay to port from verizon since they are required by law to allow you to port it at no cost.

As someone who bought this the last time it was on Woot, I have to say that we've been extremely happy with it. We had already been long-time customers of Lingo VOIP so our bill was only $23 a month but you just can't beat the prices when using Ooma. The quality is excellent. If you sign up to the premier service, you automatically get the blacklisting of telemarketers which has cut down on our crap phone calls tremendously, to the point of almost eliminating them. We prepaid for a year's worth of premier service which allowed for us to port over our number for free, all for about $110 for a full year. Otherwise, the basic service is only about $3-$4 a month. You just can't beat that.

We're very happy with our decision and would definitely recommend it to everyone.

dmax801 wrote:Two ways to keep your number
1) upgrade to Premium ooma and the cost of porting your old number is included
2) don't upgrade to Premium, but do pay a $40 one time fee to have the number ported over

Whether you can port your number or not depends on whether or not your local phone service provider allows you to do so. If you live in an area serviced by Qwest or some local company, you won't be able to port.

Ooma does have a limited selection of numbers. I live in Idaho and the nearest number for me was a toll call. I solved this problem by getting a google voice number much closer to home. Get a Google Voice number and keep it for life! Ooma and Googlevoice are a combination that's hard to beat!

drunkturkey wrote:Take a look at the forums of Ooma/etc., many have moved from Vonage to Ooma.

We successfully ported our number from Lingo VOIP to Ooma.

gpalermo wrote:I stand corrected, it sound like ooma will do this for you at a cost obviously

Nope, didn't cost anything for the port. Of course, this was three years ago, so they may have changed things since then.

Tyross wrote:The magic jack can't fax, it requires your computer to be on all the time to work (which costs money and invites hackers (imo).

The OOMA is plain awesomeness. It works like any other household appliance, plug it in and you are set. I have mine on a UPS with my computer and it has never failed me ever. Plus it comes with a great answering machine, free call display and much more.

I have the older hub/scout model which I absolutely love! Again, best purchase I have made in years. Unit paid for itself after 4 months and it has been free (as I have the pre-FCC b.s. system) ever since. So I have saved roughly $700 in the time I have had it and every month I do have it, I save another $50 I would have spent.

I can plug any phone into any phone jack in my house and it works.

I do have FIOS 50mb/50mb internet connection, but I hear it works well on almost any DECENT connection. If you get any quality issues, I'm guessing it is your ISP.

Overall, I have yet to see any product/service anywhere that can even come close to this.

For long distance (outside U.S.) You can send them an OOMA for free calls all the time, or you can use cheap calling cards. I pre-programmed the calling card number into my phone, so I hit one button, wait and then dial who ever I want.

My two cents.

50/50 on FiOS? Ugh. I thought I was top dog with my 35/35. Now I feel like a piker. Thanks a lot.

Seroc99 wrote:Can anyone briefly explain the difference between this and MagicJack? that's 19.95 a year and this is $139 flat fee, plus taxes on the call. what's better or what more do you get with this thing?

Magic jack needs a computer on with the device plugged in to work. This does not. My parents have magic jack and I have one of these. The voice quality from the OOMA is better.

davemeigs5 wrote:most times, check their web site

definitely check their website. about a year and a half ago, i ordered one because reviews said you could port your number. it turned out that i couldn't port mine. i returned it. sorry, but my number is out there in too many places for me to change it at this point, even if it costs me a couple hundred bucks a year. it really irritated me because i was so excited to open the package when the ooma arrived. it was like having someone steal your birthday present the same day you got it. i just checked again and they still can't port my number. trying to hold back the tears.

it seems like if you are in a large city, you stand the best chance of keeping your #.

dmax801 wrote:I use Gmail and Calendar and Finance and Docs and Maps and Voice and then I, really, start to get a little nervous that so much of my digital life funnels through the Google/Skynet offices.

Does that not bug people?

Google Vader finds your lack of faith... disturbing.

phacopida wrote:Yeah. I live in the epicenter of a two-block area that is prone to power outages. Usually it is only for an hour or two but sometimes it's for days. Anytime you hear on the news that there are still 150 people without power in Kitsap County, you can bet I am one of them. Our power goes out when someone sneezes.

Ah...Kitsap. 'Nuff said.

stevesds wrote:Wow, if anyone reading this has had several massive fires in their town, maybe you should keep your $240/yr landline.

For everyone else outside that nasty fire-zone, Ooma is a great money saver!

Yeah, and that fire just happened to knock out the cell towers so the land lines worked. If it had knocked out the Teleco poles, the cell phones would have worked instead. So really, just a matter of chance which phones work and which ones don't during a disaster.

jtown1024 wrote:Bought one of these last time it was on Woot. I have not been able to get it to work properly and Customer Service is incredibly slow and unhelpful. Outgoing calls work fine but when I get an incoming call, 70% of the time I pick up the phone and hear rapid clicking sounds and the Ooma reboots itself. The caller tells me it keeps ringing on their end and does not go to my voicemail. This problem has been replicated with customer service and though the tests they do with my ISP pass with flying colors they still do not do anything about it. Even though they experienced the problem first hand, the Indian says to me, "I understand your problem but it would be hard for us to catch the problem happening." That blew my mind considering it had just happened minutes earlier with the same guy.

Anyways...as I step off my soap box, the sound quality is pretty good when the calls connect. Much better than the magicJack I replaced it with. Callers with the magicJack kept getting dropped audio. My Ooma problem seems to be very unique as I've searched for others with similar problems. So if it worked all the time and I didn't have to deal with hour long get-nowhere conversations with CS, then I'd be very happy with it.

Ask for a supervisor. If they still won't fix it then drop two words: Attorney General. That usually gets their attention.

okay they make this comment about getting the premium service

Free number transfer, Handset or Bluetooth (Telo customers only)

Sign-up for a year of Ooma Premier and get a free Ooma Telo Handset ($49.99 value), Ooma Bluetooth Adapter ($29.99 value) or we'll transfer your number for free ($39.99 value)

It not an easy as you think to port your number form a VIOP service but they can easily port it from a telco for free, since the telco are required to allow you to port it at no cost. They even say it could take them 4 weeks to make it happen.

thesilverring wrote:eh? The ooma box sends ones and zeroes AKA data on the modem side.
It is possible that your connection is not 'always on' I suppose but the line is still just data.
Did you actually try using ooma on it? You will likely need to setup the PPPoE if you put it in front of your router, otherwise put it behind the router and turn on QoS on your router.

What they really mean is that if you drop your phone service then they will charge you more for DSL only, right?
There is no technical reason to prevent the Ooma box working.

This is actually pretty typical for phone companies and DSL lines. The published price is often a "bundled" price if you have the basic phone service though you won' find that little fact anywhere on the advertising.