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Ooma Review: 1 Year After Making the Switch
It’s been just over a year since I made the switch from Verizon to the Ooma (for land line) and Net10 (prepaid cellular) and I wanted to provide a comprehensive Ooma review. I had been paying $60/mo. with Verizon for cell phones for my wife and myself and did not use a land line at all.
My thought was that if I could drastically reduce my cell phone usage by having a land line, I could lower my cell phone bill significantly by switching to a lower minute prepaid plan. And I did just that – I have cut my total phone bills for two cell phone plans and the Ooma land line to just $30/month. The Ooma was essential in that transition, so I wanted to give a comprehensive review for you to determine if the Ooma might make sense for you.
In this Ooma review, first, I wanted to give a recap on what the Ooma is, for those who don’t know and get into the rest of the review so that you know everything you’d want to know about the Ooma.
What is an Ooma?
The Ooma is VOIP hardware that you plug in to a modem. It allows you to make free domestic calls, low priced international calls, and use a variety of other features. It differs from other VOIP services in that you pay for the hardware and have very limited or zero monthly fees vs. higher fees like traditional land line telephone service. It works without having your computer turned on. You just plug any regular phone into the Ooma unit.
What About Ooma International Calls?
If you make calls internationally, you really have an opportunity to save money over cellular and land line phone service. You can view the latest Ooma international rates on their site, but at the time of this post, calls to Canada were $0.014, UK – $0.019, China – $0.025, and Mexico – $0.07 per minute.
Ooma Telo
The Ooma Telo
Once you pay for the Ooma Telo unit, all calls are still free of charge. However, there is a nominal service charge per month now that covers regulatory compliance, 911 service fees, and a federal universal service charge. Through a Ooma fee calculator on their site you can calculate what your fee is. Still cheap as heck and better than any alternative out there. Here’s what it came up with for my zip code:
Ooma Setup
Anyone (who has a modem and high-speed internet connection) can do it. The basic setup looks like this:
It’s really that simple, you plug your phone into the Ooma (in the middle) and your Ooma into a modem. You choose and activate a number online, and you’re ready to go. As stated earlier, you DO NOT use your computer at all in the connection.
Ooma Features
Other than providing you a connection, the Ooma does provide some nifty free features.
- Caller ID
- Call Waiting
- Voicemail (also can be listened to online)
- New phone number (available for most area codes)
- Free in-network calling (for international calls)
You can also port in your old landline number for a one-time fee of $39.99.
You can upgrade your features for a monthly fee to Ooma premier. Upgraded features include conferencing, forwarding, call blocking, and one free number porting. I haven’t used these features, so I can’t tell you if the upgrade service is worth it or not.
Service & Product Quality
I have not had to call Ooma customer service for anything. Ever. The setup is easy, the hardware has worked beautifully, and the acoustics are incredibly clear. There was one time over the last year that service was down (for an hour or so) and Ooma was very respondent and transparent about what caused the problem and how they were going to fix it. I have zero complaints. If you check out Ooma’s Amazon reviews,
Where to Buy Ooma
You can purchase Ooma at a number of retailers and on Ooma’s site, but the lowest price I have seen recently was at Amazon for $199 (w/free shipping) for the Ooma Telo. This is the lowest price I have ever seen it at (it has been retailing for about $250 at most places lately and on the Ooma site). The associated Ooma Telo handset sells for $49 on Amazon and just about everywhere else.
As an update, Ooma occasionally offers referral coupons to existing customers that I get now and then. Check out my Ooma snippet on my “money saving products page” for this coupon. Recently, it offers $10 off, free shipping, and a free bluetooth unit, directly from Ooma.
Final Thoughts
They really have made a great product that I have recommended to a number of people and would recommend to anyone looking to cut their phone bill. 5 out of 5 stars. It’s a frugal, monthly-subscription hater’s dream. Check out the Ooma at Amazon for more.
My name is G.E. Miller and 
Looking to get rid of land line which includes a special ring fax number that comes in on the same line as the house phone. Can this number also be ported to ooma providing I pay the fee?
How does one handle voice mail? A neccesity since my husband uses land line for his business.
I’m also not sure I’m clear on whether or not the computer must be on for all this to work.
I do not know about the fax question, but I do know that I occasionally have trouble doing outgoing faxes on the Ooma line even though I dial the recommended *99 first. So I am not sure how reliable incoming faxes would be. You might need to ask this question directly to Ooma unless someone else can answer it.
Voice mail is not a problem and comes standard. You can access the voicemail directly from your Ooma phone, or remotely from any other phone by setting up a password.
i just fax regular, without using the *99 and never had a problem. you can also access your vm through your email or online. The computer does not need to be on, in fact now you can use ooma wirelessly with their wifi adapter and put in anywhere you can get wireless in your home, no need to plug it into anything but the wall and phone.
Hi GG,
I don’t know if or when you might get this …..this is Apr 2012…and I just read your post in Dec 2011 on an Ooma Review for the second time (read it back then, too)……..Now I’m determined to get Ooma and get away from AT&T–their going up on their rates and their billing is horrendous. Can I ask you a few questions?….re: faxing, do you pay for the Premier …Premium??…& you said you don’t do a 99 thing…? I think I’ll be able to figure that out when I get Ooma…Did you have to “port” a number?….I’m wondering how AT&T is about that—my Bill definitely wants to keep our same Tel #….We definitely will have to pay the Premier???….’cause he needs “call forwarding”..Do you have that???….I hope you don’t mind me asking all these questions?…..finally, Are you still happy with Ooma???
Hope to hear from you, GG, and thanks. Angi p.s. I’m going to go ahead and get Ooma …found $50 off coupon….hope it works!!!
Here is my input:
You don’t have to pay for Ooma Premier to fax. You only have to dial *99, then the number. I occasionally have trouble faxing documents, particularly large ones. In this case I try to scan and email the documents. Regarding porting your #, there is a charge to do that, but I THINK (check to make sure) that if you sign up for Ooma Premier for a one year minimum there is no charge. AT&T cannot prohibit you from porting your number from them. You need Premier for the call forwarding feature. I have been an Ooma customer for several years now, and love it. Much better than Magic Jack, though technically I don’t know why since they both go over the internet. Why anyone would use Vonage instead of Ooma is beyond me. I’ve tried to get friends to switch, but either old habits die hard or people think it’s too good to be true.
Does anyone have a workaround for using ooma with an alarm service, I am sure there is a way, I believe I read it in a forum, but my alarm company insists on landline, but I am not paying $25 a month for a landline to use an alarm service paid by HOA.
Ooma Premium may be a fax solution. the second # may be the thing that might handle fax. i am assuming that you have one phone # ported over to Ooma but that the fax is done with a double ring for the same #. You could re-route that to a virtual number that could deliver the fax. Fax settings are different resulting in poor voice quality. Ooma tech support is best contacted to see if this will work.
I purchased an Ooma telo in October of 2011 and paid the $39.00 for the porting of my telephone number. I’ve had the same number for many ydars and want to keep it.
I contacted my telephone carrier, windstream, to ask to have a “dry loop” aka “naked loop” aka “stand alone” DSL line installed for my computer so that when my phone number was finally ported and I began using Ooma, It would not interfere with my computer. The line was installed on November 2, 2011.
Ooma has contacted Windstream repeatedly in their efforts to get Windstream to port my telephone number. Windstream continued to refuse citing excuse after excuse for not porting my phone number…until they ran out of excuses and began to use the same excuses over again.
I had to contact the FCC as well as my states Public Utilities Commission to FORCE Windstream into porting my telephone number.
I am still not able to use my Ooma device as it is supposed to work because Windstream, although claiming they agreed to port my number, are doing their best to ensure that the Ooma deivce does not work…they are playing dumb about disconnecting their incoming phone line from my home stating that if they disconnect it, then I will not be able to receive DSL service because DSL service is provided to my home via that phone line…really? I didnt know that, this is not a dial up service.
At any rate, I am an absolute imecile/idiot when it comes to this type of technical stuff. I need to know WHICH line in my junctino box to disconect in order to keep disconnect windstreams phone service from my home yet still reeive windsteams (or some other ISP) DSL service.
After I get this figured out, if I can do away with Windstream’s DSL and use a different one, I will do so. Then I will tell everyone I know how to do the same thing…
The next thing on my ‘to do” list is to get rid of dish network via a “Boxee” or some other device/or TV so I can get satellite TV’s fangs out of my neck and therefore, pocket book. Getting rid of telphone service and dish network will be a savings to me of $135.00 (maybe more)per month. I’ll probably have to use it to fill one car with gasoline.
If someone can tell me/help me (step-by-step) to disconnect Windsteam’s phone line from my home so that my DSL still works I will appreciate their help. Windstream’s techs dont know how to do it.
Hi Bill,
I had DSL from BellSouth years ago before naked-DSL was available. I left DSL for cable internet (just internet, no TV services) about the time AT&T acquired BellSouth. At any rate, here’s how it worked back then and probably still works today.
There is one line coming in from the phone box on your street to your home (called the demarkation point/box). The line feeding your street box goes to a service point or a central office. At that point, your line is connected to a voice service line for your phone and another line for the DSL transmissions. It is a simple process for a phone co to disconnect the voice line and leave the DSL line connected to your feed line.
BellSouth claimed I had to have a land line for my DSL line. It was a business model/ pricing strategy. It was not a technical issue. Once AT&T acquired BellSouth, AT&T was forced by the FCC to provide naked-DSL services to BellSouth customers. By that time, I had moved to a new home and had access to naked highspeed cable internet for the same price as DSL.
I would file complaints against Winstream with you local PSC, the BBB and possibly the FCC for their refusal to port your local number.
If they TRULY cannot provide naked-DSL, then they should release the number to Ooma, provide you with another local number (that you will not use) free of charge fore your DSL line.
Good Luck!
Sorry about the misspelled and misplaced words in my first note…I am typing alone and in the dark…and I have fat fingers….
Just saw the Ooma hookup explanation reflected above. If you have a phone line, a phone carrier and want to port your current phone number, hooking Ooma up and using it aint that easy. Especially if you have a carrier that does not want to play fair.
If i am making it too complicated (I’m not) please explain how?