Ooma VoIP Phone Service
$199.99 One Time Fee, Plus Monthly Taxes
Ooma is a Voice over IP product that saves you a lot of money over time. Whether you already have a landline, or another Voice over IP phone service, this is another great home phone service option that you may want to check out! And yes, you can even keep your current phone number.
After Ooma's one-time fee of $199.99, you get unlimited calling in the United States from that point forward. (Ooma is cheaper on eBay.) The only bill you get from that point foreward are the Federal taxes and the 911 fee, which come to $3.47 per month. If you want to use Ooma though, you need to have high speed internet service in your home, since a broadband connection is required for the service to work.
The Ooma system includes two devices, the Ooma Hub and the Ooma Scout.
The Ooma Hub interfaces with your home phone network, complete with functions for quickly controlling your voicemail. The hub has to be connected to a phone jack and into a modem, or a router, with a broadband internet connection. It comes with schematics explaining how to hook it up depending on the setup of your home network; with or without a router. It is very easy to set up in just minutes and after going through the registration process online, you can instantly start making unlimited local and long distance phone calls. (Ooma, like other unlimited VoIP companies cap your minutes at 5000 per month, and you need to be aware that that includes all incoming and outgoing local and long distance phone calls.)
To make a phone call, your phone should be plugged into the Ooma Hub and dialed just like you would on any other phone.
Answering a call works just like your current landline phone? It will ring just like it normally would, and you answer, and that's it. There's nothing more to it.
The Ooma Scout on the other hand, allows you to hookup another home phone somewhere else in your house. It has to be plugged into the room's phone jack for you to receive and make phone calls in that location, and the Ooma Scout includes voicemail functionality as well. It basically interfaces with your home phone network and serves as an extension of your primary phone, which is the one connected to your Ooma Hub.
For every phone in your house that you want to add, you need to purchase and connect one Ooma Scout. The hub and the scout also have LED tabs on top, giving you very clear status indication if your phone service is working or if you have voice mails waiting for you.
Ooma VOIP has an enhanced service that you can setup to send you alerts in your email, or your mobile phone, when you get a voicemail, and you can control it all through the Ooma Hub, or the Ooma Scout. You don't even have to dial anymore to access your voicemails. The hub and scout have built in speakers and all you have to do is push "Play" and your voicemail starts playing.
You can also add very inexpensive international calling to your account if you'd like. If you'd like to keep your current phone number, Ooma will port it over for a one time fee of $39.99. Ooma's service also includes Call-waiting and Caller-ID.
