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Review by pandora 
member for 11.8 years, 5090 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 19 days ago
 Outland
 $1 per month- (month by month)
 about 1 days "Easy setup, high quality voice, fax may be supported, no monthly fees for Ooma Core" "Business model potentially unstable" "A great easy to set up VOIP service with high quality sound"
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10th Update: I need to update this review every 180 days to keep it current. Ooma is still working well for me. Still no fees, and very reliable service.
9th Update: Hard to believe it's been 180 days, but it's time for my 9th Ooma review. It's still working just fine, I have 6 units, and pay $0 per month. I still love Ooma.
8th Update: Ooma continues to charge me $0 per month and provide great service. So far so good.
7th Update: Ooma continues to be a fantastic service and I've never been forced to pay a penny after buying the ATA. Kudos Ooma.
6th Update: I'm doing an update every 6 months as I believe it's required for my review to count in the VOIP GBU. Ooma is still working great and as advertised. I'm still a very satisfied customer.
5th update: Ooma still provides me with free phone service that is of high quality and with no monthly fees. I'm still a happy customer after all these years. Thanks Ooma.
4th update: Well it's been a while with Ooma, I update about every 6 months. So far so good. No major problems, voice quality still great. I'm still a happy camper. My only concern is that Ooma could go out of business. Ooma has created a bunch of plans, newer Telo users will now pay $3-$4 per month. It isn't quite the great deal an Ooma Core system was. At least Ooma charging new customers for taxes and fees should help with corporate viability.
3rd Update: Ooma has changed their TOS for new Telo users. As an older Ooma Hub user I'm grandfathered in on the old terms. I have been using Ooma for some time now and am still a very satisfied customer.
2nd Update: I've now gone entirely off AT&T and to Ooma for landlines. The sound quality with Ooma is comparable to my old POTS lines. So far Ooma has delivered what it promised without any grief. I'm a 100% satisfied customer at this time. My only concern would be for the Ooma financial model. With 2 Ooma hubs, I currently have 3 lines supported by Ooma and have had no significant problems.
Update: It has been a few months since I installed Ooma and ported one of my phone numbers to it. Reliability has been great, and sound quality even better. When my internet connection was severely degraded, Ooma sound quality was first rate.
I mostly post about Ooma now on the Ooma forums. Support has improved. It used to take 15 or so minutes to get a live (American) at the Ooma support line, now it takes just a couple of minutes (or less). There is little need to call support as voice quality and reliability have been first rate.
Of late good deals on Ooma core systems have been harder to find, it seems to be a very popular product. I recommend Ooma to my friends.
Initial review: I read reviews on Amazon, and it seemed as if Ooma was providing a great service. When the price went from $219 to $200, I decided to give it a try. Amazon has a great 30 day return policy, if Ooma wasn't good, it would be easy to return.
Setup was easy, within 5 minutes it was unboxed and connected to my network (behind my router). Activation on the website was a breeze, and I had a functioning local telephone number within two minutes of completing the online form.
There was no credit card or social security number required to activate service. I did have to provide a street address for the E911 feature.
Within 2 minutes of completing the form, my Ooma went from having it's indicator tab glow red (meaning something is wrong) to blue (meaning it is ready to make a call). Since that time, my Ooma hub has been doing a wonderful job.
The Ooma core consists of a hub and scout. The hub does most of the work, the scout helps add support features which seem to mostly require the $99 per year premium service. I don't use the scout.
I've been able to send and receive faxes of up to 8 pages via my Ooma hub. There have been no fax problems.
Voice quality is exceptional for a VOIP service, it is almost as good as a land line.
The only drawback is there is no fallover to an alternate phone number in the event of an internet failure. Thus if my Ooma link goes down, there is no way to have Ooma call forward to my cell phone.
Ooma support has been helpful. They provide an 800 number, and Americans answer the phone. Wait time has varied between 6 and 15 minutes. Twice I've received a busy when calling support, and called later without a problem.
The business model of giving free domestic calling (up to 3,000 outgoing minutes per month) with no fee may not be stable. Time will tell. Until then, Ooma is a fantastic device and provides very good service.
Recently I added a second Ooma hub to my home network. It can make calls with no problem, both Ooma hubs work fine behind my router.
Each hub is assigned a static LAN IP via static DHCP, similarly they are assigned highest QOS priority via their MAC. So far, so good.
The second Ooma hub activated without any problem, it was as problem free as the first. Activation seems to take only 2-3 minutes.
Edited to add my recent experiences with Ooma support have been outstanding. I've increased my rating of Ooma.
Comments:
 | | you pay taxes and fees, so its not free. You pay TAXES and FEES every month on those 6 ooma's. so not really "free"..... | |
| | pandoraPremium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
kudos:1 Reviews:
 ·Google Voice
 ·Comcast
·ooma
·Future Nine Corp..
|  Re: you pay taxes and fees, so its not free.
said by compuguybna:You pay TAXES and FEES every month on those 6 ooma's. so not really "free".....
No, you may pay those fees, I don't. Older Ooma users pay absolutely nothing per month. On this forum, for well over two years I encouraged users to buy the service when there was no fee, and was told Ooma would be out of business in less than a year. I update my review of Ooma every 6 months (required to keep it current with DSLREPORTS so it counts in the Good, the bad and the ugly).
So for nearly 5 years, I've paid nothing for Ooma, not a cent, on 6 lines for myself, but nearly 40 lines for extended family and friends.
It's unfortunate you didn't order an Ooma when they had no monthly fees, if you had, you'd be grandfathered and be paying absolutely nothing.
In response to your statement, about me specifically, it is incorrect. I actually pay nothing, nada, zip, $0.
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"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." - Milton Friedman" | |
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 Review by jduffy
member for 6.6 years, 493 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 98 days ago
- Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
- $13 per month
- "Great voice quality, Premier Service offers a lot of value, Love it!"
- "Nothing Really"
- "Great Value even with Premier Service"
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I purchased my Ooma Telo from Woot (now owned by Amazon) as a refurbished unit for $99.00. Still has a one year warranty. At the time I was paying Time Warner $30 a month for our home phone and $34 a month for a second line for home office. The Time Warner monthly bill with cable and Internet went from about $120 a month to $250 in just four years for the same Cable TV, Internet, and Phone. So I was looking to cut what I was spending.
So I connected the Ooma. Took about 15 minutes max to install and get it up and running by registering it on the Ooma website. After a few days of testing call quality, I submitted my porting order to port the home number to Ooma. Took Ooma only 8 days to get the port from Time Warner.
Now I have to tell you that my wife always liked retrieving voice mails using a "box" of some sort. She never like having to retrieve her voice mails using the phone. Why, I don't know and cannot figure it out. Anyway, with the Ooma box she has her "box" that she can press a button and listen to her voice mails. You can still retrieve voice messages using a phone and they will also be emailed to you as an mp3 file. I like that.
Now what I really list is how Ooma can filter out SPAM phone calls. They have a built-in community blacklist of telemarketers and the like. You can check the box on the Ooma website to use this AND you can specify what you want to do with those calls. You can send them to voice mail, just let the phone ring and never answer...or, and this is really great, you can have Ooma play the caller a "phone disconnected" message...gotta love that one.
AND, you can also have your own blacklist if the spamming caller is not on the Ooma, community list, you can add it yourself to your own list.
The Premier Service adds things like a free second number, and second line if you have a $59 Ooma phone that will pair with the Ooma Telo. BTW, you can have up to four Ooma phones/wireless jacks that pair with the Telo and this is with standard or Premier. You can even add more numbers for an extra charge beyond the two.
Premier also adds free calling to Canada (not important to me), three-way conferencing, caller name along with the phone number on caller ID, Community Blacklist and Personal Blacklist (forgot that this is only with Premier, which is worth the $9.95 a month extra just for this feature), call screening (you can listen to the caller leaving a voice mail and if it is someone you want to talk to, you can just pick up the phone and talk), a back-up number (if your Internet connection goes out, Ooma will forward your calls to another number like your cell phone, and more features that you can discover by going to the Ooma website.
I think it is still pretty important to have a phone at home. I know most people are just relying on cell phones now, but I hate chasing around for one cell phone at the house and the connection is not always reliable in the home.
So for under $14 a month, I have a really robust phone system now. If you really want just a basic no frills phone, then fore go the Premier Service for just basic calling and pay the 911 fees and taxes which are usually under $4 a month.
Personally, I think the Premier Service is more than worth and make Ooma a real nice home communication tool.
Oh, and it will integrate with Google Voice. So I just ordered another Ooma Telo for my home office. This time instead of porting that number to Ooma, I first ported it to T-Mobile (you have to do this since Google cannot port from anyone but a mobile carrier), then port to Google Voice. Then Google Voice can integrate with Ooma.
...and one more thing. My home Ooma Telo is connected wireless to the router. You can buy a wireless device for $49 that plugs into the back of the Telo. That way the Telo can be located anywhere in the house.
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 Review by Jackarino
member for 6.2 years, 1158 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 115 days ago
- Allendale,Bergen,NJ
- $4 per month
- about 2 days
- "You pay for it once"
- "hassle to transfer number"
- "Good service in which you don't have to pay monthly for"
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This is a very good service which replaces your landline or ads a secondary line to your home or business. I had this for about 6 months in my transition from Cablevision to Fios. The best part of ooma is you pay for it once! No monthly bill! The call quality and reliability was exceptional. I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't want monthly bills and who was a quality VOIP service.
In response to the comment. There are some small fees with the service. Still doesn't bother me!
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 Review by compuguybna
member for 3.8 years, 1794 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
updated 115 days ago
- Nashville,Davidson,TN
- $5 per month
- about 1 days
- "Cheap Home Phone Service if you have a FAST broadband connection"
- "Call quality generally, but sometimes choppy with heavy internet usage."
- "Fair Voip Quality Overall, Taxes Went up to $4.72."
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11/30/12 - - CANCELLED OOMA. bundled internet and phone from the local cable co. Phone for $14.99 taxes included. better quality.
UPDATE 10/8/12. Had OOMA for over a year now. Most of the startup bugs have been worked out. TAXES have gone up to $4.72 a month.. Downgraded ISP speed, but still works ok on a 15mbps connection.
UPDATE 11/23/11....
Decided to just go with OOMA BASIC. Over a month and a half passed, I got my first bill... $3.47.
still solid. Charter gave us a speed bump. now 30mbps down / 4 up. no problems with QOS.
UPDATE 11/12/11 . . . .
Received new FIRMWARE about a week ago. the "robotic voice" seems to be corrected. AT&T landline issue seems to be corrected. Unit seems solid. Calls get choppy with heavy downloading on the network at the same time. Have devoted about 1500down and 900up as QOS priority, and that seems to be sufficient for phone calls with normal web surfing. will probably NOT renew the Premier service. Not sure the 9.99 extra is worth it ((( I like free service too much))). If any thing changes, I'll be sure to update.
UPDATE 10/19/11 . . . .
Up and running for 15 days here without an issue. The calling AT&T landlines appears to have been resolved.. Call quality seems to be ok, Although gets "robotic" about 20 minutes into a call. Overall, second time around seems alot better than the first unit. Will update next month.
UPDATE 10/4/11 . . . . .
Trying another OOMA box and new phone number. Exchanged the other unit.
The AT&T landline seems to be resolved for now. I'm still testing the new unit for now. Only a few calls not received so far. VoiceMail is sometimes very choppy and laggy.
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Thought I'd take a minute to review the OOMA TELO device.
Advertised as "FREE HOME PHONE SERVICE".
Its a VOIP device, so you have to have a pretty steady consistent fast internet connections. I had Charter 18 down / 2 up service, so bandwidth was NOT an issue..
Setup was pretty easy, but I have to add, you really have to be a little computer savy and know what functions a modem, router, and IP address performs.
Register the device online using the Activation Code (last few digits of the MAC address).
Put in your local area code and prefix (like if you have a landline #), and it will suggest local numbers that you can choose in YOUR area code (and prefix)..
A few configurations you can have the device in, including where the device is in your configuration. You can plug the internet directly into the device, then your home network (router) into the "home" port. Or you can hook the device into your router ports (this configuration requires a little more tweaking, and a little knowledge of IP address, etc).
I found the optimal configuration was for the device to be plugged into the router, and provide the device reserved bandwidth from the router. I reserved 5000 down and 1000 up for QOS rules.
Up and working, we called several numbers back and forth to determine the call quality. Mostly, the calls were clear, but on occassion, the calls were fuzzy with a strange "echo" in the background (on a call that was previously crystal clear).
All the sudden we could not call local #'s in our local town (SPECIFICALLY AT&T landline #'s). For example, the OOMA device was 931-422-xxxx, and our local # was 931-359)
When we called 931-359-xxxx from our OOMA device, we could tell when the caller answered BUT, we could hear the caller (outgoing call). Likewise, on incoming calls from 931-359, everything was ok. After speaking for about an hour troubleshooting with someone in the Phillippies, I was transferred to Level 2 tech support, after a while of investigating states that there were some issues DIALING at&t landlines with this device, (and obviously had been for a while, since people from late 2010 had reported this issue in their forums).... The "workaround" was to dial *99 before the #, but this basically was a "fax" mode. the call worked and you could hear on both ends, BUT all the sudden, there was a "double echo" on both ends.
I am taking this specific unit back to the retail store for an exchange, and i'll start the registration progress again and hopefully get a new #. Will report back later the exchange.
Comments:
| | This seemed interesting This seemed interesting. My family has used Ooma for a very long time. I used Google to search for 931-359 and the first hit was on »phones.whitepages.com/931-359 .
Off the first page was a link for Walgreens, it is pasted below:
758 N Ellington Pkwy
Lewisburg, TN (0.2 mi)
(931) 359-6204
I picked up my phone, and used Ooma to call Walgreens. Got a robot voice menu, then music while waiting for customer service. I asked what hours the pharmacy was open on Sunday, and got an answer from a very polite woman.
No echo, the call went right through, no problem. We don't dedicate anything in QOS to our Ooma device, it is just plugged into the router.
Did you ever post your concern on the Ooma forum at ooma.com? | |
| | | | | pandoraPremium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
kudos:1 |  Re: This seemed interesting
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| | | | | | Re: This seemed interesting No, using Charter HSI.
said by pandora:Are you using AT&T DSL?
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pandoraPremium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
kudos:1 |  At least your long Ooma nightmare is over
Finally your long and torturous Ooma nightmare is over.
Kudos! | |
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 rezapci
join:2002-03-24
Kansas City, MO |  contact your congressman
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Review by Bob859
member for 3.5 years, 74 visits, last login: 21 days ago
updated 221 days ago
- Elk River,Sherburne,MN
- Contract price not specified.
- about 1 days
- "very reliable, saves me money, excellent call quality"
- "I can't think of anything"
- "It is rare that I am this happy with any product or service."
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It was three years ago today when I installed my ooma. I am still a happy customer. I have had no problems. It still works great, I am a happy buyer and I continue to save money each month.
Update: I have now been using the ooma for over two years and my opinion of it is the same. It is reliable and I am very happy with the service that I enjoy with my ooma.
My wife and I got rid of our landline in 2005. We used cell phones only, until we bought the ooma. The ooma has enabled us to greatly reduce our cell phone usage, hence, it is a money saver. (We were able to replace our AT&T postpaid phones with PagePlus prepaid phones).
We have been using the ooma since August, 2009. I have had no complaints. It has worked flawlessly.
We have no need for the Premier features, so there is no monthly or annual cost. My net cost for the device was $176. I have had no other expenses with the ooma.
I have found the ooma website, and especially the customer forums, to be very helpful.
Comments:
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Review by tmc8080
member for 8.9 years, 709 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 231 days ago
- Brooklyn,Kings,NY
- $3 per month
- about 3 days
- "Great to get away from telco & cableco voip!"
- "Rare glitches, but nothing horrible."
- "Phone service for $3.76 a month. $10 more if you want premium features"
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I paid $184 and got a $50 rebate, so net price was $144! Even with premier of $100 a year, I'm saving about $21 a month over FIOS voip and would have spent $16 more than Optimum Voice. Service went down once in the 4 months and not for long (1/2 hour). I have a cell phone as backup and that's all I need.
Why pay more with other telecoms or 3rd party voip companies?
Sure, you might get a better upfront deal with a MagicJack, but long-term, Ooma is the better value and reliable service. Ooma pays for itself in as little as 6-12 months. As of this review I've saved $85 on voip by cancelling Verizon Fios triple play and subscribing to Optimum Boost 50/8 for $44.90 a month (if I include video cancellation, it's a net savings of $40 a month)
The Ooma forum is very good first line support and circumvents the need for many customer service calls.
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain morrisbb.net)
lodged 251 days ago
- Hendersonville,Henderson,NC
- Contract price not specified.
| |
Purchased OOMA telo about 6 months ago. Horrible connections .
Customer support not good,is offshore. E mailed them a ques. giving
them my upload ,download speed etc. . instead of answering simple ques
they referred me to their web site, which I cant get. Had my internet
provider check everything they claim OOMA is the problem . MY router
and modem are new. All ( blue lights) went out on unit this week,
works as bad as ever but no lights. Bought OOMA because of very
positive review in Consumer Report mag. They are now also on my list.
Yes unit does save alot of money- but sometimes you get what you pay
for. Check out your high speed internet performance specs from your
provider before you buy this unit. ( upload,download, packet loss, ping
whatever ) versus what OOMA requires . Wish you luck.
E.R.B.
Hendersonville NC
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Review by Dave321
member for 289 days, 193 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 289 days ago
- Cornwall,ON
- $3 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 120 days
- "Awesome VOIP"
- "Recommended to all!!!"
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I love my ooma. I use it on all my home phones ( 6 cordless and one landline). Works GREAT, and the sound quality is the best. It has almost paid for itself. Only one more month to go.
Comments:
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Review by McDuff
member for 305 days, 18 visits, last login: 184 days ago
lodged 299 days ago
- Royal Oak,Oakland,MI
- $4 per month
- about 1 days
- "Great quality, reliability, and good device design"
- "Nothing yet"
- "Highly recommend"
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After trying a few other VOIP providers which start out with a great deal for the first year or two, and mediocre service / quality, I decided to switch out to my Cable company's phone service. They recently increased the billing for phone service with an additional charge, so I decided I would give Voip another try. After checking out the options and reviews here, I went with Ooma - which had a rebate program going on.
I've been with them over a month now, and I have had no hiccups, glitches or issues and the call quality has been as good as what we had from our cable company. I also very much like the Ooma device which works like an answering machine. They have all the features I would expect or use from a Voip company, and, the website is very easy to navigate. I am probably going to go with their premier service which will add $10 a month, because I do like many of the features and this will allow you to port your phone for free which would normally be $40.
Overall a great option - if you look at the reviews, they're very few negative on Ooma and given my experience, I have to concur!
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Review by bdeustis
member for 5.1 years, 32 visits, last login: 39 days ago
lodged 1.1 years ago
- Atlanta,Fulton,GA
- Contract price not specified.
- about 600 days
- "Rock Solid Voice Quality, Ability to search a phone nr"
- "Tech Support can be iffy but installation is very simple"
- "Best Comm decision I have made in years"
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We switched my Father to Vonage in 2008 which ended up being almost as much as AT&T. I switched to Ooma in April 2010 and my Father to Ooma this past Dec 2010.
My Ooma device is a Hub and recently added 3 Scouts. It runs over Comcast HSI. My Father's Ooma device is a Telo running on an AT&T Internet Dry Loop. The Hub versus Telo device is mostly cosmetic. There is a better web configuration page on the Telo than on the Hub. The Telo support Blue Tooth Handsets and you can sync your myOoma contacts to these bluetooth handsets so the Caller Name & ID info can be tailored via your contact edits. Both Devices received updates from Ooma directly as needed.
I am grandfathered so I pay $0 in tax and fees. My Father pays $4/mo which is the same as I would if I were to become an Ooma subscriber today. Also if I upgrade to a Telo, I loose my tax and fee free status. That said, we both subscribed to Ooma's Premier service @ $100/yr to avoid the initial $40 porting fee. I resubscribed in year 2 because the premier service allows you to block any number in your myOoma settings
Activation is simple and if your Internet service is up, then it should take no more that 20-30 minutes. When you activate your device, you select a phone number. You can select any phone number in Ooma's inventory, you just have to play with the search filters to narrow into what you want. I like to have a number that easy to recall so I try to make the number look like xxA-AxB-Bx00 where A and B are the same digit value and the last two digits are 00.
The phone number you select is is your primary number until you complete your port - porting is optional. Once the port is complete, the number you select is your secondary number - which I use as a business line - hence the pickiness in phone number.
Complications - Fax machines and Home Security systems. Here are my learnings:
Fax: Precede all outbound Faxs with *99, lower the transmission speed down = 9600 (see fax machine settings.) Do not try to connect through a Scout.
Security: (Re) Interconnect Security Panel jack with Ooma Hub "Phone jack"
Scouts communicate with the hub via the Hub's "Wall jack". All other devices communicate with the Hub via the Hub's "Phone jack" By interconnecting both of the Hub's Wall and Phone jacks with the internal home wiring, all devices work as expected. I can provide more on the home wiring aspects if interested
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