 SlyPremium
join:2004-02-20
Johnson City, TN
 ·Callcentric
3 edits | Ooma Scout's honor Interesting concept... Peer to peer VoIP... not sure if it will work though as it relies on existing land lines (which I got rid of when switching to VoIP):
After the troubled times of companies like Vonage and SunRocket, it's a little surprising that a new VOIP startup could get $27 million in venture funding from some of the biggest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Yet that's exactly what Ooma did, and today the 50-person startup launches beta testing for its flagship VoIP service.
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Ooma hopes to make its money by selling a $400 Linux-based gateway device (shown below) that plugs into the customer's broadband connection and existing land line connection (if there is one), and into the existing phone wiring in the house. When users pick up a phone to make a call they hear a special tone indicating that Ooma is on and that they're in VoIP mode.
For calls to non-users VOIP services like Vonage typically must rely on the land line networks of other operators (like AT&T, for example), and that costs money--goodbye free calls. Ooma says it's found away around that problem.
Ooma anticipates that many users will choose to keep one regular land line hooked up, and Ooma's scheme takes full advantage of that fact.
Ooma uses those lines to connect all the Ooma boxes in a given market to form a sort of peer-to-peer grid. Each Ooma box in the grid can be used as a gateway to route calls placed by other Ooma users. »blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/arch···946.html
$400... 
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"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."
- Plato - |
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 usa2kBlessedPremium,MVM
join:2003-01-26
Canton, MI
kudos:3 | A P2P Gateway in your home? |
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SlyPremium
join:2004-02-20
Johnson City, TN | Yea I know... not sure that would be a good idea.  |
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Reviews:
·Future Nine Corp..
1 edit | reply to Sly
Maybe I'm slow but I don't understand how they can terminate a call to a pstn number without somehow putting the call on the pstn network and paying somebody to terminate the call.
I can understand how they can call each other's "Ooma" box. that's not a big deal. Lots of voip providers do that. The PC World article referenced says
"That Ooma box then routes the call to its destination phone using the local operator's land line network. This doesn't affect the owner of that box in the least; he can still place and receive calls normally."
What are they going to do, use the owner's pstn phone line to terminate the call? Doesn't that make the phone line busy for someone trying to call that didn't buy the $400 box?
A Wall Street Journal columnist, Walt Mossberg, also had an article today about the deal.
»ptech.allthingsd.com/20070719/oo···service/ |
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 digiblurGot Sipura?Premium
join:2002-06-03
Louisiana | reply to Sly
$27 million dollars for some snake oil, eh? |
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I paid $60 for my SPA-1001, I pay $5/month for my DID, and I pay about $4/month for outbound calling (using voipcheap).
At this rate it would be over 3 years before I'd spent $400.
What's the chance that the economics of the business will still be the same in 2010? Pretty unlikely I think; I'd be surprised if anyone in the developed world is still paying per-minute charges for landline calls.
Ooma looks like a sucker bet. |
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| reply to Sly
I thought this sounded familiar...
»valleywag.com/tech/separated-at-···0563.php
This sounds just like PhoneGnome. Just 4 times more expensive for the equipment. |
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1 edit | reply to Sly
Ashton Kutcher creative director? (see comments)
»www.engadget.com/2007/07/19/ooma···a-price/ |
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maziloFrom MaziloPremium
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA
kudos:1 | reply to Sly
Does anyone have an Ooma token to spare? If you do, please PM me the token because I sure would like to try this to see how good Ooma is.
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Mazi (UK Non-Geo Phone: +44-703-194-2574) |
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| reply to Sly
Lingering questions ( from most severe to least )
1) It's a violation of the TOS to terminate calls from other users on a residential POTS line, they may get away with it for a while, but this is bound to catch up with them ( and their users ).
2) They can not guarantee that the Ooma POTS line your call is being routed through is not being taped. At least before you had to be in the chain of control, now your call could go through any ooma box local to the user you are calling.
3) Someone calls in a bomb threat... and it goes over your POTS line... explain that one to the cops.
4) Hello, servers and overhead in this type of operation are not free... how will they pay for it when the VC money dries up? DID's, overflow termination costs, and more cost money.
5) This is a solution in search of a problem. It's VoIP but you still have to pay for the phone line AND internet access for it to be fully useful. |
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SlyPremium
join:2004-02-20
Johnson City, TN | Those are some good points... I just can't figure this one out. /leaves scratching head |
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maziloFrom MaziloPremium
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA
kudos:1 | said by Sly:Those are some good points... I just can't figure this one out. /leaves scratching head Have a look here.
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Mazi (UK Non-Geo Phone: +44-703-194-2574) |
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| They have the same problems with fwdOut that they admit to.
»www.voip-info.org/wiki-fwdOUT |
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kwest
join:2003-05-15
Dallas, GA
1 edit | reply to mazilo
said by mazilo:Does anyone have an Ooma token to spare? If you do, please PM me the token because I sure would like to try this to see how good Ooma is. Same here, I would love to try it if anyone has a token please IM me.
Thank You |
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