Free Phone Calls With Ooma? - Comments Page 1

I started using Phone Power in September. They were highly rated and had a special deal - $120 for the first year plus a 2nd year free. With taxes, fees, etc. for that time, plus equipment, it was about $190. So far I've been very pleased with the quality of the sound and it has cut my cell phone bill way down.

For anyone who has a home security system, you should check with the company that provides the monitoring service to see if VoIP is compatible with the system. I was told that I'd need a special adapter installed, and even if I did that, there was no guarantee that it would work.

How would you compare the Ooma service with that of Magic Jack?

I have Packet8. The annual fee is $239, and with the taxes for me in New York City, it's $301. Then I pay about $7 per month again in taxes (don't ask - I don't understand it either).
For all that money, I get unlimited calling, call-waiting, voicemail, caller-id with name, conference calling, call-forwarding and simultaneous rings. I don't make international calls, so I don't know their prices for various countries.
One wacky thing is that their monthly invoices shows the calls listed with Pacific time-zone. That's great if you live in the Pacific time-zone area. I live in NYC, so I always have to make 3-hour adjustments. Not too much of a problem, as I don't always look at the actual call history. But you would think I could set it up in my profile to display in the EDT, but no.
The quality is ok. I like that the voicemail can be set up to send me a .wav file to listen to it and I can then delete it from the my email so I don't have to actually dial the v/m system.

Bought MJ years ago...never worked well. Dropped calls, really bad interference, etc.
Spent well over 25 hours with tech support to fix it. Nothing. Gave up on it.
Before someone asks/comments "it depends on net service", have 6MB cable modem and Skype and other streaming apps work just fine.
Now paying $45 per month for 2 lines with cable co. (San Juan PR). If Ooma works here, they will save me $35 per month after the first 3 months (paying for box).
Thanks for the heads-up, Bob.

Does not work outside of the 50 states.
Section 3(c):
Calls within the United States do not include international calls, or calls to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Wake Island, the Midway Islands, Kingman Reef, Johnston Island, Canada and certain other locations within the North American Numbering Plan Area, nor do they include calls to content providers (e.g., 900, 976), premium services (such as 411) or operator assisted calls (such as 0+, 00+).

I have majicjack plus. It is $19.95/year with no surcharges, includes call forwarding, conference calling and many other features included. $69.95 includes the hardware plus first year service and you can port your existing number. It also plugs into your router, so yes it is VOIP. I am an extremely happy customer!

Bob, I am presently using MAGICJACK and I think I will stick with that. The device only costs about 30 bucks and comes with one year of free calling within the USA. It is also free for me to call from Italy to any number back home in the USA. Yearly renewal of the service is around 20 bucks. I can also add international minutes and call anywhere in the world for very little cost. I can use it with a phone or connect it directly to my computer with no phone and use the sound system of my computer. If you haven't tried MGICJACK, I suggest you give it a shot. I have been using it for many years now and have never had even one problem with quality.

barring unpersonable customer service, what about magicjackPlus?

I got Ooma about 2 years ago when my landline cost me about $29. Of that $29, $15 was for phone service and $14 was for taxes. I decided that I couldn't afford to waste that much money each month. A friend had ooma and she loved it so we decided to try it and I really like it. I have Comcast internet so the cost wasn't going to cost that much. TRY IT, you won't be sorry!!

Seems to me and of course I may be wrong..it's happened before,believe it or not..but I think Magic Jack plus is a better deal.

I've had Ooma service for about 30 months and am satisfied. I also have dry DSL on a separate phone line, as all my home phones (10?)are connected to the Ooma line. CR magazine rated Ooma as the #1 VoIP phone service. The monthly taxes are now $4.53 I have the optional USB Bluetooth plug-in ($30) so when my cell phone rings it rings through the house phones also. My church has had 3 Ooma lines that I set up over two years ago- with a combined monthly bill of under $15. To me, the $10/mo Ooma Premier service is not worth it. Occasionally the Ooma boxes might go for as little as $100. Don't buy a used one on Ebay, as there is an $80 re-connect fee on a used box.

Haven't tried any myself,but my son who lives in Virginia has magic jack and he is happy with it so far,sometimes when he calls me it cuts out just a little ,but not all the time.For the price i think right now it is a very good deal.Have been searching for myself one so thanks for all the info that you give us.

We've been using Ooma for a couple of years. We have no other phone service. It's been fine with some minor glitches at times, but they regularly automatically update the firmware in the Ooma Telo device so that it's always improving. The one mistake in your article above is that about 6 months ago Ooma made all calls to Canada free.

I've had ooma service for a couple of years. First I changed my home business number over, using an ooma hub and scout (the scout for the fax machine, although they recommend attaching it to the hub). I ported two numbers (voice line and fax line)but signed up for the Premier service, so only paid for one directly.
About a year after I had it for business, I got it for our home number. Same deal, got Premier and ported the home number.
I'm willing to pay the $10 a month, compared to the $40 or so (hard to remember, it's been so long) that we paid for regular Verizon phone service.
Two best things: call forwarding, so I can get my calls when I'm on the road, and call blocking. The do not call list may work for commercial callers, but fundraisers were driving us crazy, every night around dinnertime, five, six, seven calls in a row. Now we send the obnoxious numbers to the bit bucket, thanks to ooma. Quiet meals.

Although I've known about Ooma for a few years, I've never tried it myself. I have used MagicJack so I'm familiar with VoIP and it's limitations.

In addition, you didn't really answer the question 'does it live up to its hype?'. It seems to have some advantages (on paper) over other similar services. What I do like is that Ooma reserves the bandwidth it needs to make a quality call. It can't be overpowered by other things using bandwidth such as streaming video. That feature alone makes it worth the money I think.

If you watch the 'deal of the day' sites, you will see refurbished Ooma units on there for pretty good prices every once in a while.

How does this compare w/ Skype ??

Can Ooma handle ADT or similar "home watch" systems?

We have been using Ooma for about 5 months now. No problems with their service at all. We have the basic service and we ported our old number because I use it for my business and didn't want to hassle with customers getting a new number. Otherwise we probably would not have worried about keeping the old number.

We pay a few cents over $4/month for taxes. That is it. Considering that our old service cost us over $50/month I am ecstatic. You can do the math but it has already paid for itself. As far as reliability-it is as reliable as your IP. We have a slight lag in the conversation and that is the only downside. I can put up with that considering the savings. I have used and received faxes and talked on the phone while there being 3-4 other computers on the router.

All in all it is worth it. Go for it.

Calling phones from gmail is free for domestic calls with no upfront charge.