We've had this for months. We pay less than $4 / month and have recommended this to four friends who each thank us often. This is a no-brainer, if you're considering it, buy it.

It's cool, and people will like you more.

I got one of these the last time they were up. It works great and my monthly bill is only $3.50. There are no games, the setup is easy, and I can't recommend it enough. This *is not* like MagicJack where you need a computer or they are sending you ads. It's real phone service for a few bucks a month. And the VOIP quality is really good too (better than SunRocket, AllVoi, and TeleBlend).

On my previous unit, an Ooma Hub, I had a problem setting it up and had to call customer service. You call the 800-number, push one button to speak to a representative, and you are almost instantly connected with someone. And they speak English!

One of many previous woots:

http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4530418

Picked ours up on Woot several months ago. Kicked Vonage and their $10/month worth of taxes and fees to the curb. Now I'm paying less than $14/mo for Ooma Premier as opposed to $35 with Vonage.

The only thing I miss is being able to have it ring at home for a certain amount of time, *then* forward to my cell. With Ooma it's either straight forwarding with no ring at home, or ring both at the same time.

Fellow Wooters: I bought this Ooma Telo refurbished back in January 2011 from Woot. It lasted 5 or 6 months and died. BUYER be warned!

Woot deleted my comment it seems. I was expressing my disappointment as to the lack of a Woot-Off but instead I'll say that this VoIP thing is a fine product for those that want to setup a VoIP.

I myself find regular telephone lines to be more reliable (though that could be my crummy Internet provider more so than the device).

The biggest positive is that the call quality is fantastic when talking with other VoIP people.

So I have Google Voice, and an Obi110 ( http://obihai.com/what-is.html

Which allows me to make calls for free http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth twice as much (plus paying $4/month instead of $0/month)?

Oh, and Ooma now has integration with Google Voice (part of their "Premier" package). I'm not sure what that entails, considering the high amount of customizability that you have with Google Voice and Ooma separately, the combination should be really awesome.

Does this work up with dial-up?

I have the older Ooma model (the Hub). It's an outstanding piece of kit. I basically just had to plug it in, activate online, and approve the port request from AT&T. Monthly cost is less than paying for call waiting from the phone company.

Extremely high wife-acceptance-factor, to boot. She loves the voice quality and that she can easily check voicemails from her iphone.

Faxing is a little flaky (it's hit or miss, and I can't figure out why). Other than that, no complaints.

But is it mac compatible?

Womp womp.

Got it last time, love it so far.

Get a new panasonic phone that has call block and you won't miss the premium features that cost $10 extra.

I don't know why everyone isn't using Ooma. What? Do you like phone bills?

I bought one last time it came up and I've been very pleased so far.
The Telo works like a nice little answering machine with the ability to check voicemail via a built in speaker at the push of a button.
Setup was cake, I set mine behind my router and it works like it's supposed to. I've kept my Vonage for about a month overlap, but I can say that I've not had any cause to hesitate on making the switch complete.

moxxee wrote:Does this work up with dial-up?

Usually not. VOIP compresses the data stream to save on bandwidth. If you can connect at all over dialup, it will be very slow. I've tried sending faxes over VOIP and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, with about a fifty-fifty chance of it going either way.

My husband and I got this the last time it was up on Woot. We switched over from Vonage. First off, the bill is the right price .. a few bucks vs $35 is hard to beat. Even with a lower price, the quality is the same. We were even able to port our number over. This has been awesome for us since we live in South Korea. It is so easy to stay in touch with family and friends back home.

If you're hesitating, just buy it!

I have never used one of these nor do I really need one but I can say that if I did I would go for this one. I have read the previous woot! discussion threads and can say that it is almost unanimously praised items I have seen on woot! but those who own or have used one.

This may be a off-beat question , but why would anyone really need a home telephone if everyone in the household has a cell phone ?? The only calls i get at home are from people just trying to sell me great deals etc.....

Any other comments regarding the faxing capabilities? Would love to be able to hook up our all-in-one and be able to fax.

theguruguys wrote:I have never used one of these nor do I really need one but I can say that if I did I would go for this one. I have read the previous threads when this item has appeared before and can say that it is almost unanimously praised by all that have and have used one.

Agreed, I might buy this eventually. 6372 purchased in four woots since October.

I've used it for a year and have been generally happy with it. Certainly cheaper than Ma Bell or Vonnage. Using it with a Uniden Dect 6.0 phone and other than some occasional voice echos - which also happens with my land line (yes I have both) - all is well. Use Ooma for all calls. Also dropped my cell contract and use a pre-pay to save even more.

stevenlee212 wrote:This may be a off-beat question , but why would anyone really need a home telephone if everyone in the household has a cell phone ?? The only calls i get at home are from people just trying to sell me great deals etc.....

Because I get next to no cell signal in my house. I don't want to have to go outside to make or receive calls, but this works great with my cable internet.

quantamm wrote:I got one of these the last time they were up. It works great and my monthly bill is only $3.50. There are no games, the setup is easy, and I can't recommend it enough. This *is not* like MagicJack where you need a computer or they are sending you ads. It's real phone service for a few bucks a month. And the VOIP quality is really good too (better than SunRocket, AllVoi, and TeleBlend).

On my previous unit, an Ooma Hub, I had a problem setting it up and had to call customer service. You call the 800-number, push one button to speak to a representative, and you are almost instantly connected with someone. And they speak English!

It's true they speak English; however, in the six times I called them they were hardly able to solve my problems. And because I still had a landline I was going to have to pay over $130 to have my DSL/landline separated. I was never pleased with the customer 'service'. They were not friendly and three of the six times they gave me incorrect instructions.

I have an Ooma Telo right now. The call quality is fantastic, even during heavy internet use, and I love it. Since it Ooma has unlimited minutes, it's the only number our daughter is allowed to give her friends!

mdickinson wrote:So I have Google Voice, and an Obi110 ( http://obihai.com/what-is.html

Which allows me to make calls for free http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth twice as much (plus paying $4/month instead of $0/month)?

well you don't need 2. with the obi you have to have one, and so does at least one other person you'd be calling. so that makes it $100 instead of $50. personally, i think the ooma is worth the extra price to avoid the hassle. i'm in for one

Ooma + Google Voice = ?

Google Forum

I've been using Ooma for over a year. Once you sever all ties to your old outside telephone wiring all the jacks in your home become usable for Ooma/VoIP. I set the Ooma ringer on max rings, so our AT&T dect6 phone system answering machine picks up instead of Ooma.

The highest compliment I can pay Ooma is to say I completely forget we are no longer with Verizon phone service. The Ooma base is practially hidden in my office.

Your Ooma performance will be based directly on your internet performance. YMMV!

oopsz wrote:Faxing is a little flaky (it's hit or miss, and I can't figure out why). Other than that, no complaints.

Try dialing *99 and then the number. I fax all the time on my Hub. May have to insert a pause between *99 and the number.

mdickinson wrote:So I have Google Voice, and an Obi110 ( http://obihai.com/what-is.html

Which allows me to make calls for free http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth twice as much (plus paying $4/month instead of $0/month)?

I looked at the Obi1110. Isn't there a phone line or cable connection involved somewhere? In other words, you're still paying someone for something at some point, no? Seriously...I don't know. Set me straight. tia

I switched from Vonage to Ooma and was glad I did. I can't speak for the machine as I have an Ooma Hub not a Telo but I can tell you that I've been happy with the service for the last 3 years and have no plans to switch to a different provider.
One thing in particular I liked was the on-demand QOS. With Vonage it reserved a good chunk of bandwidth all the time but with Ooma it only grabs some bandwidth for QOS when you're making or receiving a call.
Cons: the 3.9c connection fees add up if you call internationally a lot without a plan.
See their international rates for details.

We ended up taking the plan so spend about $11/month for 1000 international minutes ($9.99 + taxes/fees) and that's it.

I bought the Ooma Hub about 6 months ago and I absolutely love it. I ditched the premiere service after the free trial and it was just a phone call to take care of. I pay about $3.50 for taxes every month. I tried not paying it but they shut off my service about 3 months later. I only did it to see what would happen. When I purchased this I had AT&T remove my telephone service. Of course they jacked up the price of the DSL line required to make the Ooma work. Luckily, there was a 14.99/month promotion for one year for the new service. My DSL will be $30.00 a month after this one year promotion. It was $25.00. If you get this and decide to cancel your telephone service with the phone company you will need what is called a dry line dsl service. My only complaint is that the 2 phone lines this thing claims to give you is not 2 phone lines you can use at the same time. It only adds a second phone number that can call the same phone. If you are using one of the numbers and someone calls the other then it goes to voicemail. I've gotten this for my mom and now she thinks I'm a magical wizard. Pretty cool, in my best Miley Cyrus voice.

PDubs wrote:Any other comments regarding the faxing capabilities? Would love to be able to hook up our all-in-one and be able to fax.

Sending faxes is fine - enter *99[pause] before the number and it works. I never receive any so can't speak to that.

See the FAQ

If you want to use your existing answering machine (with its remote access) rather than the Ooma voice mail, you need this device rather than the Ooma "core" or "hub" units. That is because only this device will pass incoming Touch-Tone signals (to control your answering machine).

joehiatt wrote:But is it mac compatible?

Womp womp.

Yes. Mac AND cheese!

stevenlee212 wrote:This may be a off-beat question , but why would anyone really need a home telephone if everyone in the household has a cell phone ?? The only calls i get at home are from people just trying to sell me great deals etc.....

Given the cell phone quality usually doesn't match my home phone, given the cell phone still drops calls, given the landline old fashioned phone worked for me in a power outage, given I only use my cell phone for travel or the rare call outside of home or work,.... You could do just fine if everyone owns cell phones and are satisfied with them, but I'm not one of those people, which is why I'm debating buying this.

Edit: the above aren't meant all as reasons to buy the Ooma (particularly in a power outage/poor internet connection), just that the world doesn't all operate on only cell phones and why one would consider it even if one owns a cell phone. Ooma has a pretty good positive to negative comment ratio over the past year in woots (cost, not too hard, mostly good customer service, reliability, etc.).

mdickinson wrote:So I have Google Voice, and an Obi110 ( http://obihai.com/what-is.html

Which allows me to make calls for free http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth twice as much (plus paying $4/month instead of $0/month)?

First line of Amazon's description:

"Works with Google Voice for FREE calls to the USA and Canada to 2012 - Great international rates too!"

What happens after (or during) 2012 - does the Obi110 become obsolete or un-updatable?

prosperouscheat wrote:Sending faxes is fine - enter *99[pause] before the number and it works. I never receive any so can't speak to that.

See the FAQ

I have sent and received faxes with no issue. Also works with older TiVo units that still need to make a daily call.

Please be patient with me...

I had verizon for $40 per month +tax and etc.
I had IDT for long distance $7 +tax and etc.

My phone never rang - except for telemarketers occasionally. So, I canceled it.

My daughter and grandchildren live in the UK, we in the USA. We tried Skype and it was awful. *AWFUL* We looked at Vonage and it would have cost us almost as much as having the land line.

My husband is pissed off bcuz he cannot call our kids or grandkids in the UK...

Will someone please tell me how this will work for me and why I want this one?

I would really appreciate it.

thank you!!

dakeasy wrote:Fellow Wooters: I bought this Ooma Telo refurbished back in January 2011 from Woot. It lasted 5 or 6 months and died. BUYER be warned!

Did you use the Ooma 180 days warranty and get it replaced?

mdickinson wrote:So I have Google Voice, and an Obi110 ( http://obihai.com/what-is.html

Which allows me to make calls for free http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth twice as much (plus paying $4/month instead of $0/month)?

^ THIS. ^

I don't know when Google will decide to "monetize" Google Voice, but for the time being I've paid nothing but the cost of the Obihai device and I get to keep using the phones I already had. I get caller ID, notification on the phones themselves of new GV voicemail, missed calls, etc.