# Ooma VoIP Telephone Service



## rd_aaron (Jun 24, 2011)

Anyone ever used this product? It has amazing reviews on Amazon (153 reviews... 142 rate it 5 stars, 11 rate it 4 stars).

I haven't looked into it too closely but it looks like it's maybe $3.50 a month after the up front costs (about $250). Reviews say the sound quality is very good and it's very reliable. Seems like a good cheap alternative to having home phone service.

http://www.amazon.ca/Ooma-100-0211-100-Telo-Phone-Service/dp/B005TF1FOG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328289065&sr=1-1


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## PMREdmonton (Apr 6, 2009)

Very interesting device with good reviews.

I used Vonage around 7 years ago but gave up because of all the times it caused me to miss a word the other person was saying or vice versa.

I know my high-speed internet now is much better than it used to be and it sounds like this device is a big step up from Vonage.

You have to like the ongoing $3.50 per month charge. It is on sale from Amazon right now for about $200. They also give a 60-day money back guarantee and you can keep your own number for $40. You can also connect with your mobile phone so that it rings when the home phone rings. You can also have a second number so if you have someone in the USA who you frequently phone you will only be charged for a local call. All calls in Canada are free. This is a good deal for me since 95% of my calls are within Canada and the few from the USA are predominantly from one location.

One Amazon reviewer complained that he could not phone Bell or certain 1-800 numbers for some reason (Fed-ex in particular).

They also sell some enhanced services for a slightly higher charge.

Right now I am spending $54 per month with Shaw cable phone. So over 3 years I am paying $1948. Whereas potential I would only pay $200 + $40 (maintain phone number) + $39 (3 years subscription) = $279. That is about a 85% savings. If I do not like it I can quit the service within 60 days.

I think I will order it and give it a try.


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## kyboch (Dec 23, 2011)

http://obihai.com/

Use this with freephoneline.ca and google voice and you have free calls to north america. Awesome device!


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## rd_aaron (Jun 24, 2011)

PMREdmonton said:


> Very interesting device with good reviews.
> 
> I used Vonage around 7 years ago but gave up because of all the times it caused me to miss a word the other person was saying or vice versa.
> 
> ...


Cool. Let us know how it works out once you get it!


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## PMREdmonton (Apr 6, 2009)

I've had my Ooma for a couple of weeks now.

Phone works great - can't tell the difference at all. There are no skips in the phone and voice quality has been very good. The installation is very easy and took about 10 minutes to do. The device basically plugs into your router and then you plug your phone into the device and voila - it is done.

There was a $40 fee to port over our current phone number. We could have taken a new one in our area code zone for free but wife wanted to keep our old number. Thus we had to wait about 3 weeks for the port to take place and had to keep our old phone line active until the port was complete. Again, this was our (my wife's) choice to do this.

You can check your voice mail from your ooma account on the internet very easily. You can get a second phone number for 9.99/month on Ooma premier which comes with other interesting features (calls forwarded to your mobile phone when you're not home, you can make a callers blacklist, can send phone calls straight to voicemail without ringing, free calls to US, enhanced call waiting so your other phones will ring while you are on the phone and receive another call, voice-to-text voicemail). You can use bluetooth. We are just basically using it as a landline so I can't talk much about those other features. One nice thing is that most of the features we were paying extra from our phone company are free now (long distance to Canada, voicemail, call display). The ongoing cost of the voice service is $3.50 per month. You can make long distance phone calls anywhere but there is a charge for different countries but it is still quite a bit less than what our phone company had been charging us.

You can buy an Ooma mobile app for your smartphone and make internet calls over Wifi for free to any Ooma phone. You can also use wifi to call anywhere in Canada or the US for 1.6 cents/minute.

There is the usual downside of 911 not being able to trace your address from these phones but I can't say that I am especially worried about losing that feature and one feature of the phone is a text message is sent to our mobile phone if anyone ever dials 911 from our Ooma phone.

Overall I"m very happy with this phone and it is much better than my previous experience with Vonage which I gave up on after a year and that one cost $39.99/month and wasn't nearly as good.

Many commenters online have said they like it as a personal phone but wouldn't use it as a sole business line for a myriad of reasons including internet downage would cause phone line to be inactive. However, there is a feature that would send calls to your mobile phone under such a circumstance.

I like it to myself but, of course YMMV.


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## GreenAvenue (Dec 28, 2011)

We looked into this a while back as well. But since we were locked in with Rogers we decided to hold of. I only have a couple of months to go on that contract so I'll go with Ooma as well! Just out of curiosity -and this might be a stupid question I'm sorry - but does your computer need to be on all the time or is that not relevant?


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## PMREdmonton (Apr 6, 2009)

No, it does not interact with the computer at all. It is connected up to your router or modem only.


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## PMREdmonton (Apr 6, 2009)

Basically completed another month with Ooma. 

Working great and phone bill was $3.50 this month. :biggrin:


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Why are people paying $250 up front for VoIP?

I pay I think $1 US to maintain a Cnd number (can't remember the last time I topped it up) so I can do business with NAicans, and the half penny a minute or I think it's $5/month US unlimited. Works on smartphones (which do most of the quality - noise cancelling mic etc) and I get my voice mail via email anywhere (no need to check yet another website daily). The main factors to the quality of VoIP is your internet speed not being dial up and router being smart enough to give priority for VoIP/gaming etc.. This device can not magically make better quality than those 2 important parts (internet and router) You basically paid $250 for a standalone device but they already existed for years from Linksys for $50 (which you can plug normal phones in to) Vonage and all the rest are just taking advantage of how much cheaper VoIP is than landlines (you already paid for the bandwidth...)


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## crazed (Oct 22, 2012)

Another ex-vonage user here. Well, still have an account on a retention plan (too many people still use that number) but I'm working on phasing it out. As described above, it often results in missed words or whole phrases as it cuts in and out. That's been my experience with Skype as well, and even MagicJack. I'm currently using Skype for long distance due to how well it integrates with my android phone, and haven't had a landline in 7 or 8 years. Thankfully work pays half of my cell phone costs :S


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## PMREdmonton (Apr 6, 2009)

There is the odd missed word here and there but it doesn't really appear to be any worse than my cellphone - actually probably a fair bit better than my cellphone.

I've been pretty happy with my Ooma device. The big downside is that if your internet is down your phone is down, too. But then again, we have smartphones now and do most of our talking there and that is why I went for a cheap landline and fast internet connection.


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## PMREdmonton (Apr 6, 2009)

There is the odd missed word here and there but it doesn't really appear to be any worse than my cellphone - actually probably a fair bit better than my cellphone.

I've been pretty happy with my Ooma device. The big downside is that if your internet is down your phone is down, too. But then again, we have smartphones now and do most of our talking there and that is why I went for a cheap landline and fast internet connection.


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## SavingMentor (Dec 19, 2010)

I don't really see the advantage of going with Ooma over magicJack Plus or other VoIP options that are cheaper. I use magicJack Plus and am very happy with it except for a very small delay at the start of the call that causes me to sometimes miss the initial "hello" from the person I'm calling. After that initial delay, there is no more delay and the call is almost always perfect.

magicJack is cheaper to buy than Ooma and cheaper on a monthly basis if you divide the annual fee by 12. Ooma might have one or two extra features, I'm not sure, but I doubt it would make it worth it. Personal choice I guess.


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## OurBigFatWallet (Jan 20, 2014)

I tried out the Ooma but didn't have any luck, it kept giving a 1-2 second delay while calling which made for some awkward calls. Has anyone else had any luck with it?

http://www.ourbigfatwallet.com/review-ooma/


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## al42 (Mar 5, 2011)

OurBigFatWallet said:


> I tried out the Ooma but didn't have any luck, it kept giving a 1-2 second delay while calling which made for some awkward calls. Has anyone else had any luck with it?
> 
> We had similar problems and called them. They checked out internet speed and bumped up our band width on their end and this seemed to resolve
> all the problems we were having.


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## CalgaryPotato (Mar 7, 2015)

I switched to OOMA a month ago... yeah it's a hefty up front cost but I wanted something quality as we do still use our home line often.

I find with most calls it's pretty good quality, but when talking to certain providers, for example primus cell phone users, there seems to be a 1-2 second gap.


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## dotnet_nerd (Jul 1, 2009)

I've been with OOMA for about 6 months now. No problems whatsoever, perfect sound quality.

I like the OOMA modem as well because it is connected BEFORE your router so it gets 100% packet optimization without fiddling with router QOS settings.


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## Hiitsme (Jun 14, 2012)

OurBigFatWallet said:


> I tried out the Ooma but didn't have any luck, it kept giving a 1-2 second delay while calling which made for some awkward calls. Has anyone else had any luck with it?
> 
> http://www.ourbigfatwallet.com/review-ooma/


Using for about a year now, perfect call quality. Was able to have our old landline number ported to Ooma. Small delay on line just as calls connect, I assume while call is being routed on the web, but not a significant issue.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

dotnet_nerd said:


> I've been with OOMA for about 6 months now. No problems whatsoever, perfect sound quality.
> 
> I like the OOMA modem as well because it is connected BEFORE your router so it gets 100% packet optimization without fiddling with router QOS settings.


The Ooma installation pamphlet actually says to install the Telo after the router. But if you dig deep enough they say after may be better! It can be either way. I have mine before router. There are some settings that can be set on the Ooma Telo to improve performance. Documentation of these is hard to find but better option for many than trying to fine tune router.

We have had Ooma now for almost a year. Just the basic service. Ported our existing Bell number. They put up price from C$3.98 to C$4.50/month recently. Includes free LD calling throughout Canada plus voicemail, call log etc. They have a Premier version for $10/month more, but I could not see any benefit for us.

There are other VOIP options that are Canadian based (Ooma is in California). A bit lower entry cost too. For example, Fongo and VOIP.ms. And freephoneline.ca.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

agent99 said:


> There are other VOIP options that are Canadian based (Ooma is in California). A bit lower entry cost too. For example, Fongo and VOIP.ms. And freephoneline.ca.


I use voip.ms

If you have quality issues it's probably your router or internet provider. Most "high speed" in Canada still comes with very slow upload, and voip is 2 way so..


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## Userkare (Nov 17, 2014)

I also use voip.ms. I never had any trouble making/receiving calls, except when the Internet was down. I provisioned voip.ms to forward incoming calls to my cell number when there was no connectivity to my Internet. 

I like the PAYG model, but maybe it's not right for everyone. $1 per month gets me a phone number, then .01 per minute for premium call routing. Every few months, I top up my account.

I like all the self-administered features for call handling, blacklist, etc. Some folks might not want to be bothered to understand how to set it all up. It still works fine with the default settings, but with a little effort, you can make a powerful call handling system with it. 

The up-front cost is about $50 for a device (ATA) to hook-up standard analogue phones to a VOIP line, or there's free software to use a smartphone or PC as a VOIP phone. I have made calls from the States in a Starbucks with WiFi, that cost me no more than if I was at home.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

Just noticed this on the Fongo site (for home phone):

*Plus $59 *$29* one-time fee for Fongo Adapter - LIMITED TIME OFFER ($59 was crossed out)

Quite the deal!


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

I've heard some folks are very happy with Ooma.

I like Fongo Home Phone:
http://www.myownadvisor.ca/cut-rogers-went-fongo-home-phone/

Friends of mine use voip.ms. They like it as well, never an issue to date. Super cheap, even less than Fongo.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

By the way, anyone considering Ooma should look at buying it off Amazon.ca (Ooma site will direct you there too). 

Ooma from time to time have promotions. I paid C$89 for our unit on such a promotion (free shipping). But there was another frugal plus! I finally actually read Amazon's offer for an Amazon Visa card. Taking this out gave us a $20 gift certificate, so in effect reduced Ooma price to $69. On top of that the card provides 2% cash back on Amazon purchases, 1% on everything else and there are no service charges when doing currency conversions (saves 2% compared with other cards)


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## JeKyll (Oct 15, 2014)

If anybody is interested by ooma, you can use my referal code *GUT4328* to get the Ooma Telo for just $109.99 with FREE shipping! 
By the way my first bill on my credit card showed 4.98$ Can for 1 month of basic service.


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