The obvious attraction with this is the cost savings. We bought an older device about 7 months ago from Woot. It has already paid for itself.

However, what really stands out is the quality of the sound. This is hands down the best VOIP service we have tried. Plugged into the wall jack it also services the whole home. Truly love Ooma.

Only complaint is that the fax is very spotty. Can only get random faxes to go out and cannot recognize incoming faxes.

is the premium plan worth the cost?

If faxing is that important, buy a second one and set it for fax only ... that's what I'm doing =)

textunclear wrote:So this is worth owning? I have a Magic Jack and am not a fan of the phone quality. I have a 30Mbps connection and am disappointed so I never use it. My other fear is after buying it the company will go belly up the next month. That's always been my luck.

We've had a MagicJack for a few years, and call quality was occasionally good, and occasionally awful, and I have the same speed connection as you. Last week, I got fed up with the choppiness lately, and did heavy research, and learned how to apply QoS (quality of service) settings to the MagicJack through my router. This essentially gives a majority of available bandwidth to the MagicJack when a call is being made. You have to install the Tomato firmware on your router if you wish to follow this set of instructions, but I had no problem getting it all set up...

And by god, it worked! Call quality has improved dramatically... Here's the link, if you're interested in trying it out :

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MagicJack/Support_Resources/How-To/QoS/Tomato#screenshots

sti33w wrote:I live overseas. I was wondering, if the ooma has a U.S. number, can I connect it to the landline and forward calls to a cell phone.
ie.
- incomming voip call uses local landline to call cell phone.

if so, I would be in for two.

http://www.magic-jack.com/category/magic-jack-plus/

I've never used this, but if you are cheap (and I know you are because you are on a woot forum) there is a much cheaper alternative:

Get an Obi100 for about $43. You can use it with Google voice for free. With google voice, you can port your number to it. If you have a landline, you have to port to a prepaid phone or an old phone with a prepaid SIM first, then port to Google Voice.

At that point, phone is free per month. However, if you want 911 service, or have instability with inbound calls (that's a crapshoot), you can overcome this issue with a tiny bit of work. All you need is a SIP provider for inbound calls (I use Voip.ms only because sipgate.com was out of free numbers. 911 will be $1.50 per month. After you set up the account on your SIP provider, configure the OBi100 to use it as the second provider. Read the obi forums on how to configure the device so that it uses the SIP prvider for 911 and Google voice for everything else.

With this setup, I get the benefits of Google voice: multiple line ringing, awesome caller screening, transcribe and texted voice mail, and a call logging inbox. You can also text with your "home phone" via the google interface.

It really is a sweet setup for cheap money if you have just a tiny bit of patience and figure-it-out-ness.

Cost for this setup

Google voice: free
Obi100: $43 prime
(optional) Number porting from landline to SIM $20 or so
(optional) Number porting from SIM or cell phone (or Tmobile @Home) $20
SIP number: from $0 to $3 per month, depending upon provider
911 coverage: $1.50 a month, no way to get around this
Knowing you said "stuff it" to the phone carriers: priceless.

If you go to amazon, there is a very good and detailed setup post in the product reviews for the obi100

If faxing is a concern, eFax has a very tough to find free service for faxing:

http://www.efax.com/efax-free

I'm not sure if it includes outbound faxing, but who really faxes anymore?

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

Which allows me to make unlimited calls to the US and Canada - for free:
http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html
as well as low-cost international calls
http://www.google.com/chat/voice/compare.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.
http://amzn.com/B0045RMEPI

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth paying twice as much for the box, PLUS an extra $48/year ($4/month instead of $0/month)?

I cannot for the life of me figure out the attraction of the Ooma when the ObiHAI plus Google Voice provides exactly the same functionality and the savings is $249 over the first three years alone.

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

Which allows me to make unlimited calls to the US and Canada - for free:
http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html
as well as low-cost international calls
http://www.google.com/chat/voice/compare.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth paying twice as much for the box, PLUS an extra $48/year ($4/month instead of $0/month)?

I cannot for the life of me figure out the attraction of the Ooma when the ObiHAI plus Google Voice provides exactly the same functionality and the savings is $249 over the first three years alone.

As far as I can tell, the appeal of Ooma is the relative ease of setup and 911 coverage. You can overcome the 911 requirement with the Obi100 or obi110 (the 110 is only needed if you want to combine a landline). However, it is not "apple easy" to setup. You actually have to read some stuff, learn, and do.

I have been using the Ooma Telo VoIP for 6 or 8 months and I'm happy with it. I do highly recommend it if you are a tech oriented person. But I would not recommend it to someone that doesn't understand at least a bit about routers and modems.

My only issue with Ooma was that they continued billing me for Premier service after I canceled it during the trial period. And since I wasn't using any of those features I didn't notice until I after my credit card had been billed several times. Ooma initially refused to refund the charges, but later did so when I griped about it online.

Porting my number did take some time and effort, but it wasn't unreasonable.

The best thing is telling people my phone bill is $3 a month.

kmith wrote:how can I get ooma to record my calls "for quality and training purposes" like businesses do?

If you use Google Voice, you can record calls.

In answer to the question of why you would buy this instead of Magic Jack or Google Voice, the reason in my case is porting. I've had the same phone number since 1987 and I want to keep that number. I hate how some people seem to change their phone numbers a couple times a year, then they can't understand why you haven't called.

sti33w wrote:I live overseas. I was wondering, if the ooma has a U.S. number, can I connect it to the landline and forward calls to a cell phone (incoming voip call uses local landline to call cell phone).

if so, I would be in for two.

I don't know if the Ooma can do it, but the ObiHai 110 plus Google Voice can. You can have a US Google Voice number, and tell GV and the Obi110 box to have the incoming GV call use the local landline to ring your cell. The box costs 49 pounds from amazon.co.uk

http://www.obihai.com/intlsellers.html

jferry2 wrote:In answer to the question of why you would buy this instead of Magic Jack or Google Voice, the reason in my case is porting. I've had the same phone number since 1987 and I want to keep that number. I hate how some people seem to change their phone numbers a couple times a year, then they can't understand why you haven't called.

That's not a reason. You can port your number to either service.

I ported my home number to Google Voice about six months ago. It cost me a $20 number porting fee, plus a few days of cell phone service.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=1a6592be840b3adb&hl=en

what speed do you need? 46.6Kbps, and if I pay $40/mo here I get 4 times faster (Broadband)...but does it receive calls too?

brettschellhase wrote:what speed do you need? 46.6Kbps, and if I pay $40/mo here I get 4 times faster (Broadband)...but does it receive calls too?

Yes. It gives you all the functionality that your regular home phone services gives you. If you have to pay $5 or $10 per month to get a faster internet connection, you still save a lot because you don't have to pay $30 or $40 or more for home phone service anymore.

dorseydon wrote:Looks like the Ooma symbol is red in the picture. Doesn't that mean it's not working?

I was just about to make the same comment.

rotorbird wrote:I've been "Oomaing" for the last few months, I think from two Woot offerings ago. Overall it works good enough, except for yesterday when the neighborhood lost power for two long stretches. I have Ooma Premier and all calls not received due to the power loss are automatically forwarded to my cell phone.

My only other complaint is in the relativity long delay in my voice reaching the ear of the person to whom I'm conversing. If you're used to having a quick, snappy repartee, you can forget about it with Ooma, or most any other VOIP system. You'll be talking over each other almost constantly as there's no clear clue that the other person is starting to talk before you plan to do the same. I'm very tempted to use the simplex radio communications technique of stating "Over" when I'm done talking and ready to listen to the other person. Small price to pay for the really low cost service.

You need to look into QoS on your router, or reconfiguring where your ooma is in relation to your router on your home network.
Mine goes Cable modem-->Ooma-->Router and I dont have the issues you are experiencing. I know it is hit and miss for some people.

uclabru1 wrote:Does anyone know if you can use a fax machine with this? Is it just a regular phone port?

I have faxed with mine. I have not tried an incoming fax though.

uclabru1 wrote:Does anyone know if you can use a fax machine with this? Is it just a regular phone port?

I have successfully used a fax machine with mine. It took a little tinkering but finally found out that I had to route the phone line to the fax before the phone. For some reason a splitter didn't work. You have to dial *99 first. Love saving the $ on a phone bill and not having to think about long distance.

mdickinson wrote:
I ported my home number to Google Voice about six months ago. It cost me a $20 number porting fee, plus a few days of cell phone service.

Did not know that was now possible. I got on Google Voice pretty early and I don't think it was available then. But now I know what I'm going to do when Ooma goes out of business.

tl;dr entire thread


So guys tell me, why should I buy this when I'm completely happy with magicjack?

inb4 "magicjack requires you to leave your computer on 24x7"

I do that anyways.

I bought this the last time it came up on woot! I got the premium service and an ooma handset which gives me a second line for business. I ported my land line which was very easy. I got my first "ooma" bill which was $3.27 The service has been excellent, but I do have a very good internet connection. I am very happy with the decision to buy the Ooma Telo.

aykim86 wrote:Absolutely not. I bought two of these unit the last two times they were featured on Woot and I was really hoping they would work as a fax line. Turns out, they're not.

When I send and receive only a few pages, it works okay with my Brother all in one but when it comes to over 4 pages, it always cuts out, sending or receiving. I tried it as a fax on another HP fax machine I have and it doesn't even work at all.

I called Ooma Tech Support and they also stated that Ooma fax is not reliable.

Even though the Ooma doesn't work as a fax line, $140 is a great price for unlimited calling with all the features. I pay about $3.50 a month for taxes which is $40 cheaper than what I was paying. I still have to pay $40 for the fax line, but I guess you can't have it all

I had trouble with the fax line until I went to their forum and found a description of how to change the settings on the device to allow better faxing, now about 95-100%, not sure if the few problems I have now are my end or the recievers.

Oh and my warranty was only supposed to be 6months, but when I registered my account with ooma and input my serial number it gave me the full year warranty...don't know if that was a glitch or mine was actually new.

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

Which allows me to make unlimited calls to the US and Canada - for free:
http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html
as well as low-cost international calls
http://www.google.com/chat/voice/compare.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.
http://amzn.com/B0045RMEPI

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth paying twice as much for the box, PLUS an extra $48/year ($4/month instead of $0/month)?

I cannot for the life of me figure out the attraction of the Ooma when the ObiHAI plus Google Voice provides exactly the same functionality and the savings is $249 over the first three years alone.

Quality post! Buying a ObiHAI now.

In for 1.
Mom was just telling me last night they'd really like me to have my own line so they don't have to take messages for me. :P

For those already using one:

Is the premium service worth it?
I already have a Google voice account.
How well does the GV integration work?

Is anyone using the mobile app?
Is it worth using (I have an Android tablet I usually have on me and have wifi most places).

KATANARYDA wrote:tl;dr entire thread


So guys tell me, why should I buy this when I'm completely happy with magicjack?

inb4 "magicjack requires you to leave your computer on 24x7"

I do that anyways.

If your computer fails or has any type of issue that kills its internet connection your magic jack will stop working and my ooma will not. Ooma being only dependent on itself is a huge plus for a lot of people. Sure magic jack may be a great product, but the more things you rely on the more things have an opportunity to go wrong. Some people don't like betting on all their components never failing.
inb4 "my computer doesn't have viruses and won't crash" ;)

sgpigeon wrote:If your computer fails or has any type of issue that kills its internet connection your magic jack will stop working and my ooma will not. Ooma being only dependent on itself is a huge plus for a lot of people. Sure magic jack may be a great product, but the more things you rely on the more things have an opportunity to go wrong. Some people don't like betting on all their components never failing.
inb4 "my computer doesn't have viruses and won't crash" ;)

*sigh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmjz66GMPrw

I'm tempted to buy. Not all phone numbers port to Ooma, so I checked on their site to see if my number will port, and it does!
https://go.ooma.com/phone_numbers
This is amazing considering we live in the middle of nowhere.

This is the best thing I've ever gotten from Woot by far.

I can not tell the difference all at between calling on this and calling on my old home phone. The difference in reality however is about $45 per month. So after only a couple months this thing has totally paid for itself and I tell everybody I know to check this thing out.

We have had the original model Ooma for a year (using over Verizon FIOS), and love it.

~No phone bills (local or long distance) has saved me over $600 in a year
~Great voice quality (indistinguishable from standard service)
~Unlimited message space (at least we have never run out)
~Multiple lines, multiple handsets (we use the Scout to extend it)
~If you have a second home that you spend a lot of time in, you can bring it with you and home phone rings at vacation house

Negatives
~If my wife/son answers the phone before I pick up, I sometimes get a dial tone when I pick up rather than joining the call they are on
~In 12 months, it has crashed 3 times, meaning I had to unplug it and reset (took 30 seconds)
~Our DirectTV and alarm system need dedicated connections (e.g. Ooma Scout) -- e.g. not every jack in the house works. Only those that connect to the unit. Not sure if they fixed that on this one.

Bought one (not on Woot) about a year and a half ago & couldn't be happier. At the time I did my research and bought it at the cheapest I could find - a local computer chain for $200. So this price looks good. It's saving me a ton of money & I'm very, very happy w/the call quality - no one can tell it's Ooma.

I love my Ooma. I've had it for about 8 months now and other than the initial hiccups I got everything setup. You have to make sure you hook it directly to the internet and from the phone, to your home router.

textunclear wrote:I see on their site a $79 transfer of ownership fee applies. Does that apply to the refurbished models like the one woot is offering?

I got my Ooma from Woot a few months ago and ported my land line to it. I'm very happy with it. I didn't sign up for premium features since I don't need anything in the plan. The transfer fee doesn't apply. The transfer fee is charged when an Ooma is already associated with someone.

I've had Ooma for 3 years. Flawless voice quality. No phone bills. Paid for itself in less than a year. Try Myfax internet based fax system.

I bought this the last time it was up and I love it. I was paying about $35 a month for Vonage and Ooma cut my monthly bill down to a tenth of that.

No problems worth noting aside from an outage one day that lasted about 12 hours, and although that made a lot of people rage it still wasn't a big deal.

jkreusc wrote:If faxing is a concern, eFax has a very tough to find free service for faxing:

http://www.efax.com/efax-free

I'm not sure if it includes outbound faxing, but who really faxes anymore?

Faxzero.com offers free outbound faxing, limited to three pages per fax and two faxes per day. They put a little, innocuous ad for themselves on the cover sheet.

I've used it a few times for things I had to fax, and it worked fine.

I bought one the last time Woot had them and have no regrets at all. The quality is great, just as good as my Qwest line was.

It paid for itself in 2 months. I was paying about $55/month just for basic phone service, then another $15-20 for long distance. Now all I pay is $13.74/month for taxes and the premium service. I really like the call blocking and call forwarding features the premium service provides.

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

Which allows me to make unlimited calls to the US and Canada - for free:
http://obihai.com/googlevoice.html
as well as low-cost international calls
http://www.google.com/chat/voice/compare.html

The Obi110 was $49.95 at Amazon.
http://amzn.com/B0045RMEPI

Could someone tell me what the Ooma does that makes it worth paying twice as much for the box, PLUS an extra $48/year ($4/month instead of $0/month)?

I cannot for the life of me figure out the attraction of the Ooma when the ObiHAI plus Google Voice provides exactly the same functionality and the savings is $249 over the first three years alone.

Obihai has no official relationship with Google. There's no guarantee that Google Voice is going to stay the same and always work with the Obi.

It probably will, but you never know.