ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills

List Price: $249.99 Discount Price: $237.06

Features:

• Includes both an ooma Hub and an ooma Scout
• Enjoy unlimited US calling, exceptional voice quality, and must-have features with no monthly fees or contracts
• Receive caller-ID, call-waiting, and voicemail at no extra charge; Pay as you go for low-cost international calls
• Hear voicemail and customize settings in the ooma Lounge
• Try out ooma's enhanced calling features with a free trial of ooma Premier, which includes a free second phone line, real-time message screening, one-touch Do Not Disturb and Send to Voicemail, a second personal number with private voicemail, and more

Customer Reviews:

Great sound quality and reasonable price! [Posted on 2008-08-29]
This product has performed very well since I installed it a little over a month ago. The setup took roughly 10-15 minutes which I feel is acceptable for a product like this. The sound quality is superb! I expected to see a big drop in my internet speed since the router is connected to the Ooma which is then connected to the modem, but I haven't really seen a noticable change (however, I rarely use the internet while on the phone).

Overall, this is a strong product with a reasonable price!

Initial Thoughts [Posted on 2008-08-29]
You can see the hype in the product description, you can see why ooma is a good idea money-wise, and so many people have written long reviews about the service. For me it came down to, why take the leap with this service? It sounds too good to be true, there has to be a hitch somewhere. So far I haven't found one.

Hardware is excellent, very well built. These units look almost Bang and Olefson in their simplicity and elegance. They look darn nice. The packaging is even kind of cool, a bit Apple-esque.

Instructions. I'm an instruction reader. I spent about 10 minutes reading both books. That is seriously not necessary at all. The Quick Start Guide, that's all you really need.

Activation - you will have to activate the unit before you install. There's a decision point that is not obvious, and it has to do with your current phone number. Ultimately I chose, port my old phone number. That's probably the safest cheapest way to go. After you activate ooma on the the website, and do the install, everything will work just fine. I'm going to try this service for a month or so, and then call ooma to actually shut off my landline (I could also never call them to shut off my landline service). Ooma will work perfectly in that mode. When you dial out, local calls are routed through your landline automatically; and long distance is routed through ooma. Easy as pie, simple and intuitive. Incoming calls, don't really care; people still call my same old phone number. If this service is really that great, I'll pay the $39.99 to have my landline shut down (it takes 3-4 weeks to complete the shut down).

Set up - it's not 10 or 15 minutes as a lot of people have written. That's almost impossible to install one that quickly. The tricky part, you need to be next to your DSL or Cable Modem, your router (if you have one), a phone line, and an electrical outlet. DSL installs will probably be easier than cable modem installs. But, you'll end up doing some rerouting of wires to do this install. I had to think pretty carefully about where things were going. The install right now is very ugly, but won't be too hard to dress up nicely.

So first impressions, this is a darn nice device. The forums and reviews debating this system all seem a bit old and wrong right now. The device appears to work exactly as advertised, no hidden costs, no surprises.

Let's all hope their business model is sound and they stay around for a long time.

WOW [Posted on 2008-08-31]
I don't know how they do it or why, but this is the best deal going. I have used Vonage and Lingo, and this pays for itself in less than a year. Call quality is just as good as or better than the other VOIP services, and NO PHONE BILL is a huge plus. Definitely worth the initial investment.

Great Features and Value, Easy to Set Up, Flawless Domestic Calling, Spotty International Service [Posted on 2008-09-02]
Background: I've been using numerous VoIP products for several years. These include Vonage, Skype, Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, VoIP Discount, and more. I feel very familiar with today's VoIP offerings and have a thorough understanding of Ooma's product. My current broadband setup is through a Comcast Cable modem. For the sake of comparison, I will use Skype and Yahoo! Messenger.

Setup: Ooma is extremely easy to install. A tech-savvy customer probably doesn't even need the instructions to set up Ooma. For the uninitiated, the included instructions are very clear and all the ports are easily identifiable. I can't imagine many people that would have a hard time physically setting up Ooma and activating the service on the company's web site.

Features: In addition to unlimited domestic calling, Ooma offers great features like caller ID, call waiting, and voicemail. These all work as advertised. I particularly like the voicemail notification options. Ooma also has premium services; for my calling habits, they're unnecessary, but I understand why some people would find them useful.

Domestic Calling: For me, this is where Ooma really shines. The call quality is fantastic -- definitely as good or better than calls I made through Skype or Yahoo! Messenger. The calls are extremely clear and I never had any connection issues. Considering the current price of the system, Ooma will pay for itself in less than a year if you compare it to all-you-can-eat offerings from phone and cable companies.

International Calling: When it works, it's very good. In terms of call quality, Ooma sounded significantly better than Yahoo! Messenger and on par with Skype. The Ooma rates are very competitive. For the countries that I frequently call, the rates were better than Skype (sometimes half the cost) and on par with Yahoo!'s. Unlike those services, you don't need to have a PC on to dial internationally. This is a huge feature for my household, since I live with people that want to make international calls but are not PC savvy.

Now for the bad news -- the international service has been spotty. I've been using Ooma service for more than a year. At times it works perfectly for international calls. At other times, it's very difficult to connect. There have been extended periods (sometimes weeks) where I've had to redial a number numerous times in order to connect an international call. Ooma's customer service was not helpful at all in these cases, offering advice like "dial the number slowly" and "don't use speed dial". I understand that this service is evolving and changes are made to it, but the main reason I'm taking a star off of this review is due to the inconsistent international service. While it has worked flawlessly for the last few months, I'm not comfortable relying on it without Yahoo! And Skype as backups.

Conclusion: Overall, Ooma is a great product and a fantastic value at its current pricing. It has served me perfectly for domestic calls. For international calls, the service is great when it works and frustrating when it doesn't.

Awesome product [Posted on 2008-09-02]
I'm not usually an early adopter, but Ooma seemed like it was worth taking a chance on. Boy was it. It is extremely simple to install, I was up and running in about 10 minutes. Rather than list all the great things about it let me just say that every feature listed in their product description works exactly as described. The call quality is perfect, no one would ever know you're not on a traditional land line unless you told them. I'd recommend this product to anyone with a high speed internet connection.

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