I love dumping the telcos for Ooma. It's a first rate VOIP service that gets me crystal clear calls cheap, which is important since cellphone sevice near my house is extremely poor. I have unlimited calling within the US and my fax machine works fine with my Ooma. I won't give my Ooma up if cellular providers ever add capacity in my area.

mke1980

USA

We switched our home phone service to OOMA. Best decision we ever made. We get the same call quality that we did with the BIG BAD phone company....but at a fraction of the cost. We now only pay taxes on the service...a few dollars a month! I recommend OOMA from everyone!!

JaneKempTurnipseed

USA

UPDATE 10/15/13: This little black box still works like a champ. Love it and can't believe I ever paid so much to have a home phone before! Get Ooma & don't look back. With my callerID comment below - I still have the basic Ooma package, but many calls show full detail on callerID. They all at least show the phone number though (unless they're blocked or whatever). So far, so good. I've been using Ooma for about 2 months now and have no complaints at all. I was able to port my home number to it (wasn't able to do that with magicjack for some reason). Sound quality is just like a regular land line and I have the features I need, like call waiting and voicemail. I chose the basic package, which after the initial costs I only pay around $3.50/month in taxes/fees. CallerID doesn't technically come with the basic package; however, I don't use the phone too terribly much (just wanted it as more of a backup and to have better clarity than a cell phone). You can log into your Ooma account and create contacts...and then they will show up on your callerID. Pretty simple. Setup was a breeze. Register the unit online, plug into your modem and phone and you're pretty much all set. I'd like to come back and review the product after a year or so to determine the longevity of it, but it's a huge money saver so far! Call Quality No complaints whatsoever. Customer Service They're a little hard to understand at times (obviously outsourced to another country), but they get the job done. Calling Features Just what I expected. Ease of Use So simple all around!

khale

Port Royal, SC

As a user since Sept. 2009 I have nothing but good things to say about my Ooma! Call quality is just as good as the regular phone if not better. As long as you have internet you have phone, and you can set the device to forward to your cell in case your internet does go down. Call Quality I have been on both sides of the calls and you cannot beat Ooma as long as you have at least a higher level ADSL line, cable and better will experience superior quality calls. I have used other devices such as MagicJack and Ooma destroys it. Customer Service I cannot speak to the quality of customer service as I have never had a problem in 4 years. I know people who have had issues and customer service was able to help them fix the problems they were having which always was an end user problem. Compatibility Works with any phone you have hooked up to your house now without issue. I have used older analog phones and I now use Dect 6.0 phones. Depending on the unit you get you can also use multiple phone sets at the same time. Calling Features Call forwarding, conference calls, dual numbers, distinctive rings, caller ID, blacklists, call logs. There are just tons of features for a fraction of the price of normal service. Ease of Use Very easy to setup and use. If you follow the instructions that come with the device you will have no problems. I am an IT specialist and tried to not follow the instructions knowing I could set everything up. Of course I had issues, went back and did exactly what the instructions said to do when hooking it up and had no issues at all. Once you setup your account, you connect the device to your network, power everything down and then back up, and boom 20 seconds later you are ready to make calls.

Wayward

USA

I was skeptical at first. You know the saying, If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Well that's what I thought but after doing some research and knowing the return policy ...if within 30 days I wasn't satisfied they would return my money, I figured lets give it a shot. I am so glad I did. I had Verizon for over 30 years. They were great but I was looking to save some money and I was already at the lowest cost they could give me. After taxes and all sorts of fees my bill was about $90.00 a month. With Ooma I now paid only the taxes, first bill was $3.71 which was exactly what Ooma said it would be before I bought the console. I bought the console for $154.00 including taxes and because I wanted all the bells and whistles I subscribed to the Premier which was $119.00 a year. That allows me to port one of my phone numbers for free & $40.00 to port my second line. At $313.00 I was concerned that the "other shoe" was going to fall and I'd be stuck with a useless machine. I am so glad I took the chance. I will be paying $44.52 a year plus the $119.00 for the Premier Service. What do I get??? I get a phone service that is crisp and clear, I can call all over the US & Canada, I can block pesky telemarketers, and even the in-laws if I want with out paying through the nose. I am very happy with the service and recommend everyone look at their web site to see all the options they offer. Call Quality There isn't any difference between the Ooma and the Verizon landline I had Customer Service I did need help with routing my phone numbers and customer service was awesome. I didn't have a long wait time and they were pleasant Compatibility I hooked up my own phone with 3 cordless extensions with out a problem Calling Features Verizon charged me a fee for blocking phone calls that did not reveal the phone number. Ooma does not. It has a Community blacklist which allows you to send blocked numbers of telemarketers and phone spammers straight to voicemail, tell them that your number doesn't accept blocked calls, a continuous ring or even that the number has been disconnected. The Personal blacklist allows you to compile your own list of numbers to block using the messages as above. It the electricity or internet goes out it can transfer all calls to your cell phone. Ease of Use It was plug and play, very simple.

macbirt

Rockland, MA

I admit that I groaned loudly when my husband initially brought up the idea of cancelling our AT&T phone service and switching to Ooma VOIP Service. I tend to live in the "if-it-aint-broke-don't-fix-it" camp, so it seemed like an untested--and potentially risky--proposition. After he won me over with visions of having a full-menu telephone service without paying ever-increasing monthly bills, I agreed to test it out. That is, we would get the Ooma **and** keep our landline for 6 months. If the Ooma performed as advertised, then we would cut the phone cord for good! Well, we ended up cutting off the landline 3 months early. It didn't take long before I was completely sold. Call Quality Since I spend the most time on the phone chatting with family, I quickly discovered that the sound quality was clear and static-free for much of the time. Every so often I do get a weird echo, but I'm not sure if that's Ooma's fault or my new cordless phones. It doesn't happen often enough to be a real problem. Customer Service The installation was handled by my husband and it took him no longer than 10 minutes to get it going. We only needed to contact customer service for the initial conversion and to get our phone number transferred over. We have had no problems with customer service at all. Compatibility The only thing I don't like is that when you cut the connection with the phone company, you lose the traditional landline 9-1-1 feature. However, if there were ever an emergency, you can dial 9-1-1 and Ooma uses an E911 service to send your address to emergency personnel. The Ooma system was built to work with a landline back-up. That's reassuring to me. Calling Features All in all, I really don't miss AT&T. With Ooma VOIP Service, I have excellent voice quality, more features (call blocking, call waiting, voicemail-to-email, ringtone, etc.), a separate fax line that works flawlessly (for a nominal fee), and no more monthly bills. I highly recommend you try it out before cutting the cord altogether, in case it doesn't work as well in your area as it does in mine. Ease of Use One of my favorite features of Ooma is the website. I set it up to send me an email when I get a message. I can listen to the message via my email or by dialing into voicemail. If it turns out to be an unwanted caller--like a spammer or telemarketer--I can click a button and put the phone number on a "blacklist," which blocks the call in the future. Love.

LoveisJoy

Chicagoland, IL

***Bottom-Line:*** I am sold on ***Ooma Telco VOIP Service***. So what is the ***Ooma Telco VOIP System? ***It is*** ***a little black box that allows one to make and receive calls over the Internet for free, plus tax. Yes, I said free, plus tax. And the tax is based on your area code--taxes for my area are just $3.59 a month. All you need is a decent high-speed Internet connection. In addition to free calling within the U.S., the easy to install ***Ooma Telco VOIP System ***allows you to port your existing phone number for $39.99. And with the ***Ooma Telco***, you'll get Caller ID, Call Waiting, and 911 services. The ***Ooma Telco*** box costs an average of $200.00 and is available at most electronics store. I bought mine at *Amazon.com *for $197.99. **Installation** Installation of the ***Ooma Telco*** device can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to complete. My ***Ooma*** took about 10 minutes to do its business. Following the instructions I first registered my ***Ooma Telco*** via the Internet, and choose a phone number based on my Area Code. I then plugged the box into an RJ-45 port on my 5-port 10/100/1000 switch, which is tin turn plugged into my AT&T 2-Wire U-Verse modem. The ***Ooma Telco*** connected to the Internet without incident, and then proceeded to download and install the latest firmware for the device. During the intervening 10 minutes the ***Ooma Telco's ***plethora of lights blinked red and blue as the box sets itself up. At the end of it all the blue lights on the top of the ***Ooma Telco ***stay lit indicating that the device is ready to use. Once the ***Ooma VOIP Telco ***was finished, I connected my telephone to the low-and-behold dial-tone. **Exclusive My Ooma Web Portal** The *My Ooma* Internet website is your online destination for the Ooma service. Via the portal you can listen to messages, check your call logs (very cool), configure your account preferences, prepay for international calling (yes International calling is fee-based), and set-up voicemail notifications, 24 hours a day. There's also an online phonebook, which can be accessed if you're using the *Ooma Telo DECT 6.0** **Handset* (sold separately). **My Viewpoint** ** ** I am very impressed by the ***Ooma VOIP Telco*; **calls are clear, crisp, and delightfully static-free. To date we have not have any issues with dropped calls, lack of dial-tone, or malfunctioning equipment. The system allows you to set-up customized voicemail greetings, but only one voicemail box is allowed. Voicemails can be played back via the Ooma Telco, attacked phone, or MP3 file delivered via e-mail. With ***Ooma Telco VOIP*** service you have the option of integrating a low-cost landline as a backup, you know, just in case you lose power. With the landline you will be able to enjoy the assurance of traditional 911 services. So, I am sold on ***Ooma Telco VOIP Service***. I looked at Vonage: too expensive, and my phone service is costing my more and more, $55.00 at last glance. The possibly of saving $660.00 a year, well, minus $42.00 (taxes) is too good to pass up. And within six months the box pays for itself. Now that I've taken the plunge I don't want to look, back, but we are still going to try the system out for another month or so, just to make sure it's right for us; stay tuned.

TheBard

Aurora, IL

The ooma telephone system is an amazing improvement over other alternatives such as the Magic Jack;using the internet to act as a telephone. The ooma, unlike the Magic Jack uses an ethernet port directly connected to it, meaning it doesn't need a computer to be on in order to access and use the phone. Setting up is extremely simple. The homepage is fairly easy to navigate and straightfoward. There is a fairly large one time fee in order to port over your home phone but the money you save in the long run is tremendous. You have two options if you want to port your old number which includes getting a temporary number while they port it over or connecting your current landline until they port it over to their server. The monthly fees are kept to a minimal which only include things like small taxes and emergency fees and I believe the firestation. My monthly bill only comes around to two dollars in taxes or something like that. The sound quality is just as great as a landline or maybe even a little better, although I admit that it sounded very monotone at first but it soon adapts. It also adds caller ID! its a great device. I highly recommend it.

holyant

Fountain Valley, CA

After seven years of using vonage as our voice over ip provider, I have a fair amount of experience with using internet based phone services. Vonage fees rose steadily over the years so I decided to purchase and ooma device to offset the monthly fees. Although a bit expensive up front, I am hopeful that this will be a sound investment. Ooma call quality is generally good, at least in the same ballpark as vonage was. I am disappointed by a few of the features that are lacking with the basic plan, such as simultaneous ring. I highly value having my home phone simultaneously ring on my cell phone so my friends and family know they only have to attempt calling me once on my home number, and don't have to redial me on my cell phone if I don't answer. This feature is available for an additional fee. We use three phones that have builtin caller id. I dislike that if I am on the phone and receive a 'beep' that the caller id only appears on the handset on which i am speaking. Porting fees to move your phone number are a bit expensive, and having a surcharge for them to have your name appear on outbound caller id is a ripoff.

rlhouseh

Riverton, UT

I really needed a landline but hated the monthly cost.  And this has been a great solution for me! You get 5000 minutes a month (unlimited in my opinion.  I never have gone over 2000) and you pay no monthly fee. I bought my system (they cost around 200-250) and then you never have to pay a monthly fee again.  You connect it through your cable modem and then connect the ooma box that comes with an answering machine.  One quick note that I *really* like is that if someone leaves me a message on my ooma phone, I can set it up to get a text on my cell phone that says I just got a message.  Its great if I am out of town or travelling, I can easily check all my messages iwht my cell phone and I know instantly whether or not I have messages.  IT works really really well. Also, another big bonus is you can use the normal landline phone you already have.  If you connect the scout to your landline wall, you can actually use any phone jack you have in the house too. The sound quality sounds exactly the same as a normal phone, in my opinion.  The *ONLY* issue I have is if someone is using a lot of the internet (watching videos, downloading large files) I can sometimes hear a very quiet clicking noise while on the phone with someone.  It is definitely bareable and most of the time I don't even notice it.  But, if no one is using the internet or just for basic email, the phone seems to me just as good as everyday landlines would be.  I guess it just depends on how large of internet download speed you have. I have never lost service and thoroughly appreciate having ooma as my free landline.

thesmudge

Dickinson, ND