Free home phone service?
Home phones seem to be dwindling at a rapid pace, but what about those people who still want one? If you talk too much to justify a cell-phone only existence, or cell coverage simply isn’t great at your house, you might be interested in Ooma. They have a product (pictured below) you plug into your existing high speed internet connection at home which gives you unlimited home phone service for no monthly cost. It sounded too good to be true, so I checked it out.
You have to buy a
n Ooma Telo for $250- but after that, you have no monthly cost. (You are responsible for $12 / year in taxes, so set aside $1 month to make sure you save for that.) The Telo will work with your existing home phones, and allows you to call any phone in the US (cell or landline) and talk for unlimited minutes a month- all for free. It’s all through VOIP technology, which has come a long way in clarity- the demo I heard sounded amazing. Certainly better quality than a cell phone. You may have heard of Vonage, or many other companies doing the same thing with VOIP calling- but they charge you a monthly fee. Ooma eliminates that, and also adds a missing feature from many VOIP companies- 911 service. You can use Ooma to call 911 in an emergency, which eliminates a big knock on other VOIP services that don’t have that.
You can transfer your existing phone number if you would like, or get a new one when you sign up. Incoming, outgoing calls- all free every month with calls in the US. International calls are significantly cheaper, too.
Of course, like any tech company these days, the $0 / month version is their base package. For $10 / month you can add a second phone line, choose an out of market phone number if you want (so if you like in LA and your family lives in Boston, they can all dial a Boston number and call you as a local phone call), and have a telemarketer block put on your phone numbers.
They have some other great add ons- like an iPhone app that lets you answer your home phone calls on the go over wifi, or the ability to use your home phones to answer calls to your cell phone using Bluetooth. Those will appeal to the ultra geeks (they sounded really cool to me!)
Ooma is available at major retailers- Best Buy, Amazon, Costco, Walmart, etc. Could be a great way to save money.
You have to buy a
n Ooma Telo for $250- but after that, you have no monthly cost. (You are responsible for $12 / year in taxes, so set aside $1 month to make sure you save for that.) The Telo will work with your existing home phones, and allows you to call any phone in the US (cell or landline) and talk for unlimited minutes a month- all for free. It’s all through VOIP technology, which has come a long way in clarity- the demo I heard sounded amazing. Certainly better quality than a cell phone. You may have heard of Vonage, or many other companies doing the same thing with VOIP calling- but they charge you a monthly fee. Ooma eliminates that, and also adds a missing feature from many VOIP companies- 911 service. You can use Ooma to call 911 in an emergency, which eliminates a big knock on other VOIP services that don’t have that.You can transfer your existing phone number if you would like, or get a new one when you sign up. Incoming, outgoing calls- all free every month with calls in the US. International calls are significantly cheaper, too.
Of course, like any tech company these days, the $0 / month version is their base package. For $10 / month you can add a second phone line, choose an out of market phone number if you want (so if you like in LA and your family lives in Boston, they can all dial a Boston number and call you as a local phone call), and have a telemarketer block put on your phone numbers.
They have some other great add ons- like an iPhone app that lets you answer your home phone calls on the go over wifi, or the ability to use your home phones to answer calls to your cell phone using Bluetooth. Those will appeal to the ultra geeks (they sounded really cool to me!)
Ooma is available at major retailers- Best Buy, Amazon, Costco, Walmart, etc. Could be a great way to save money.
--Peter
Labels: home phone service, Ooma, VOIP
This entry was posted by Amber, on Saturday, January 9, 2010. You can
leave your response
. 
