VOIP Tech Chat → [General] Is ooma Premier worth the $9.99 a month.

Should I buy the ooma premier service at $9.99 a month or should I stick with the free service (of course taxes and fees).

Sure beats paying Verizon or Comcast an arm and a leg. And sure beats giving my cell phone number to those I don't want to reach me 24/7.

And I even got a Western Mass number where the last four digits are the last four digits of my childhood phone number.

Hard to believe. The number is in Ludlow (MA) though.

Do you need or want any features of the premier.
If it is not a main line and just for unimportant or secondary stuff why waste the extra money?
»www.ooma.com/app/support ··· -premier
Only you know. But with two apple phones as your main use lines why?

edit:

I have multiple free Google and some other free lines and some very cheap like Localphone. Use a few carriers for outgoing depending on needs payg.
All I am concerned with is we pick up the phone and dial 911 it goes out over my provider with 911 with no thinking. Other calls go out cheapest way possible maybe with some thought.
Main house VOIP does have features but we do use it and use the features.
For cell my wife has Sprint and I have Republic Wireless a Sprint MVNO.
But back to point if I maxed out the features on all lines and never got just some very cheap or free numbers I would be broke or drop a lot of the numbers and lose flexibility.
Use Google numbers and some other free cheap numbers same as you use the second iPhone. For out of state relatives and friends to make a local call and reach us.
They have home phones cheap with local dialing only. Do have cells with long distance but some live so rural they do not always work or break up on calls. So they call out on unlimited local dialing and I receive on unlimited free incoming so works well for all.
But if I upgraded to lines with bells and whistles i couldn't afford it and lose my main use in the process when dropped numbers because of bells and whistles costs.
Plus like this number seems to you a good reserve number for semi important calls but not 24/7.
Unlike my childhood it still has the basics included.
: Ooma Basic free service gives you voice mail, caller-ID, call-waiting and a host of features you would never expect from a free home phone service.
Voice mail was a dream on a clinky clakkity switch. Caller ID mostly the same unless say big cities and big city switches. We lived off of no caller ID no voice mail or answering machine, omg we should have died.
But basically your needs are secondary use. Caller ID maybe no cname but you recognize the number answer if you want to. Let go to voice mail if not want.
You already said secondary use number so no biggie on more features.

Ooma (With Premier) is almost as expensive as Voipo,PhonePower,Viatalk, Future Nine and many others.
Go to the Ooma forums and you will find many complaints about their recent decision to charge taxes
on the Premier service. So on top of the $9.99 a month they are charging tax on the premier service of
$17.50 a year in addition to the monthly taxes and fees on the phone service.

Do the math.

Voipo (regular price) $149 per year plus a flat $3 per month in taxes ($36 annually) = $185 a year or $15.41 a month

PhonePower (regular price) $149 per year plus $4.71 per month in taxes and fees (in my case) = $205.52 a year or 17.12 a month

Ooma Premier $9.99 a month x 12 = $119.88 per year plus $17.50 a year Premier TAX = $137.38 a year plus $4.76 a month in taxes

= $57.12 a year in taxes = $194.50 a year or $16.21 a month

So as you can see the cost savings with ooma is not very much. PLUS you have to buy the hardware yourself it is not provided free

Also Ooma has a huge problem with network congestion causing delay for many people because they only have one server located in California

(Bay area) people on the east coast and Canada sometimes experience unacceptable delay

That "Voipo" new customer deal is for 24 months (2 years), so it is actually even better. About 7.71 per month, adapter included, phone number transfer included, and many standard features included (that on Ooma would be the extra Premiere charge).

IMO I don't think Ooma Premier is worth it unless you really want a no fuss plug and play solution, then I think it's ok. I'd rather pay the likes of voip.ms, Callcentric, etc and get access to premium features without upgrading my level of service, plus I don't like that Ooma's default voice codec is ILBC, and is hard to get someone there to change it to Ulaw for you. Oh and every other voip provider I've used has less lag then Ooma.

I read he got Ooma now deciding should pay more, To me again no. Two Apple phones and all features. Ooma premier a luxury on to of luxury.,

I've decided against the ooma premier. The only feature that I'd like is the name caller ID.

I have ooma premier for the extra phone line (for dedicated fax line), telemarketer blacklist, and the voicemail to email. The premier is only worth it if you have a need for the extras. If you don't its obviously a waste. I don't mind paying a little more to get some really nice benefits.

This is new news to me. I have a few friends over in the Bay area with Ooma and they have never had a problem with the service. I believe that the issues with network congestion is more related to the ISP of the person on Ooma.

Oooma (Premier) is a very good service, but I find Voipo excellent and well priced with loads of features built in.

A number of my Clients LOVE their Ooma's and also subscribe to Ooma Premier and they are VERY satisfied with the additional benefits for the price and GREAT support they get from Ooma. IMO, a great product and Service.

I would have to agree that Ooma Premier is a very good service. We are on our second year with no downtime and it just works. One thing we've noticed since getting ooma is that we don't receive spam like election or telemarketing calls.

I don't think it is worthwhile to pay $10 a month for Ooma premier. At one time Ooma Premier for life was an option, but no longer. $10 a month is too expensive imo.

»www.obitalk.com/obinet/
Free talking and only for $38 for the device
»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· -Product

I am going to be looking at this service next year for sure. I love ooma premier and the rock solid service, but if I can save a little bit by moving to this, then I will.

Obi has been rock solid for me, it has been a little bit over a year.

PhonePower using an Obihai ATA is available via the Obihai site for $60/year (total).

The Obi200 ATA is available from Newegg through 21 DEC for $30 shipped using the coupon code EMCWHWB45 which Newegg also provides.

But for OP seems as if secondary line not a main line. Already uses Apple phones on Verizon as main lines.

We have had Ooma for a month and just got our Bell number ported. It is our main home phone.

We looked at Premier, but only things we would have used re call blocking and secondary line that calls would be directed to in case of internet being down. Our current portable DECT6 phones don't have it, but new ones do have call blocking, so no need for the Ooma service. If internet is down, calls get redirected to Voicemail, and that is good enough for us.

Premier would have provided free LD to Canada

At C$3.98/month, Ooma basic is a heck of a service. BTW, no problems with call quality with 15/2 internet service.

Maybe I am missing something but I do not see the OP IowaCowboy mention Apple etc?
Voipo can be bought for effectively $7.00 per month (if paid in advance) and their features matchor exceed anything Verizon and Oooma have and at a better price.

He's talking about people outside the Bay area and far enough away that the 30 extra hops invite a lot of things to go wrong whereas a server near them may alleviate the problem.

I've already talked in the past about Ooma's routing method which is the cheapest route of the day.

I've had an Obi in the closet for a year and a half never used. Pulled it out today and went through setup with no issue at all. All updated and activated in the portal and configured with Google Voice. Will make for a decent extra trunk to my PBX.