No Phone Bills Ever with Ooma
Click to see ooma images So how much would it be worth to someone to completely do away with the monthly phone bill and never have to pay for phone calls ever again? According to a company called ooma, it's worth around $399. That's because ooma is offering a unique VOIP (voice over IP) proposition. Users purchase a ooma hub device for $399 and then can make unlimited calls in the United States without ever paying a monthly bill again. I had the opportunity to test out the ooma service for the last few weeks and have mostly been impressed with their offering. Along with the standard phone service, it provides a built-in second line that allows for two simultaneous calls and has very good voice mail features. Probably the biggest drawback to ooma is the requirement for extra scout units to enable service to every phone in your home or office. The initial purchase includes one scout so two phones can hook up, counting the hub and the one scout, but additional scouts would need to be purchased for each extra phone. While ooma is certainly attractive for home use I think the area where it is most attractive is in SOHO and small business environments. In these environments, being able to pay a onetime nominal fee and then have no monthly bills is an excellent option and the business telecom features of the ooma hubs and scouts are a plus. It was simple to get up and running with my ooma hub and scout. The hub includes ports for connecting to the network or directly to a broadband modem, and also includes ports for a phone and to connect to the phone lines in the home. The scout connects to the home phone lines and to a telephone and does require its own power outlet, which in some homes can limit where the scouts can go. Once connected, I could make and receive calls on my ooma connected phones (when picking up one of these phones you hear a unique ooma dial tone rather than the standard dial tone). One of the coolest features is the second line capability. If one person is on one phone the ooma devices light up line one. Someone picking up another phone can make a separate call by hitting the line two button. Ooma also has nice voice messaging capabilities, making it simple to screen calls and listen to and save messages. Through the online ooma lounge service, I could also log in anywhere online and listen to voice messages from my browser (in the ooma lounge it is also possible to make account changes). By default, ooma calls are anonymous, which can be a problem when calling people who block calls that don't send caller ID information, though I could change this default in the lounge or by hitting *82 on the phone. One of the unique aspects of the VOIP service that ooma provides is that all the devices work as a kind of peer to peer network. Each ooma device connects to others to expand the networks capabilities. While domestic calls on ooma are completely free, international calls are not free. To make international calls I could log into the lounge and for example, add $10 to my account to handle the fees for any international calls I might make. Click here to listen to my interview with ooma CEO Andrew Frame. |
Comments (20)
The ooma contract only promises free phone calls for 3 years for your $399. After that they can change the fees to whatever they want. FYI.
Posted by Michael Quinlan | October 14, 2007 8:04 PM
In addition, Ooma will not allow you to keep your present phone number. You have to accept the one they assign to you - a drawback that an Ooma representative says might be fixed "sometime around the first of the year." That's vitally important for someone who's a small business owner and needs to retain their existing phone number.
Posted by Tim | October 15, 2007 11:53 AM
What if they go out of business next week? Do you get a refund, or do they have somebody who will guarantee their offer? Seems unlikely.
Posted by Bill | October 15, 2007 11:58 AM
One word: Sunrocket.
Posted by Sam Arnott | October 15, 2007 12:07 PM
I am always a little leery of the "free forever" offerings, not just because of the obvious reason that the provider may go out of business. Often it happens because the company realizes that they over-promised, and that their business model is just not sustainable. Switching to some kind of pay-for-service model then comes across as "bait and switch" to customers, even if that was not the company's intent. Case in point: zecco.com, who just found that they couldn't keep their promise of free stock trades, and are now contending with disgruntled customers.
It seems though that ooma has some legal CYA of promising only three years for the $399 in their contract :)
Posted by Kamran Saeed | October 15, 2007 12:14 PM
Having, some weeks ago, listened to the interview podcast, I emailed this firm to ask for more information and about extending service into Canada. Without so much as even an acknowledgement of my query, I am left not having much faith in anything they promise, least of all 'free forever'. With the underlying attitude implied by this experience, we appear to be looking at principals that are firmly committed to 'so long as is convenient for me' attitude. Not confidence instilling, in my books.
Posted by Christopher | October 15, 2007 12:49 PM
The sounds good but as others point out; what happens if they go out of business?
However, the 'free for life' business model has worked for TiVo -- there is some 'fine print' but they make it work (though they no longer offer this service level). In the past TiVo offered 'one-time fee', then 'free for life'. That 'life' though was not 'your life' but the life of the specific TiVo box they sold you!! Ooma could do the same thing; tie the 'for life' deal to the specific box they shipped you, which would be fine. Like TiVo, over time the new features ONLY become available on the newer hardware so you have the choice of staying on the old h/w and not paying any monthly fees OR buying the new h/w and switching to a monthly fee.
[I'm not saying Ooma IS doing this just that this is a mechanism that they might choose to employ.]
Posted by John | October 15, 2007 1:47 PM
@Sam -
SunRocket is out of business.
See: http://www.sunrocket.com/
Posted by Ken | October 15, 2007 2:02 PM
To Ken,
I think that was Sam's point.
Posted by KB | October 15, 2007 3:08 PM
another good idea down the drain
Posted by socio2psycho | October 16, 2007 12:38 AM
@Ken
Exactly!
Posted by nigebj | October 16, 2007 11:44 AM
I live in Tijuana Mexico, but keep a USA telephone number and address. What would the costs be to end and receive calls USA/Mexico?
Posted by Ken Nash | October 16, 2007 12:43 PM
I find it very interesting and ironic that there is a "SunRocket.Com" advertisement directly below the space in which I am typing
PJ
Posted by PJ | October 18, 2007 12:24 AM
PJ, the Sun Rocket adverts come from Google; perhaps they still have some credit with Google.
Everyone else:
Read all their FaQs... if you keep your home phone number and someone in a different city calls someone in YOUR city, they'll actually reroute that person's call through YOUR outgoing POTS line.
This is probably in violation with your local Telco's tariffs; it certainly is sharing your service with someone else as part of a cooperative arrangement.
Jeff
Posted by NoBaloney | October 19, 2007 3:30 PM
I called and the ooma devices does *not* come with a scout. Was this an error or where you told that it is supposed to come with one scout?
Posted by Dave | October 29, 2007 8:25 PM
I'll double check with them to find out about this.
Posted by Jim Rapoza | October 30, 2007 6:11 PM
One of the most disturbing thing about Ooma, which any potential user (especially a business) should be aware of is that your calls go through someone else's phone line, and they can easily eavesdrop in the privacy of their own home. Ooma keeps claiming that their Hub detects this and prevents it, but any amatuer electronics hobbyist knows that you can build a simple circuit to allow undetectable eavesdropping. Ooma refuses to acknowledge this.
What is more disturbing is when you have your own phone line connected to the hub (to allow "real" 911 calls) which then allows other unknown persons to use your line. Ooma claims that they block Calling Line ID, but we know that (in the US) this does not always prevent the delivery of your number to the other end. Besides, the police can always get it. Thus, if some unknown Ooma subscriber makes a call to a drug dealer, using your line, and the called party is being monitored by the police, the police will come knocking on your door.
Posted by Mike Pierce | November 7, 2007 9:57 AM
Even thought Ooma only promises a 3 year free call contract, the standard price for phone service(1 line) w/ Voice Mail capability is no less than $29.99 a month, and if it is, then you are looking a promo that ends usually after six months. Take those numbers and multiply them by just 12 months, and the cost of the Ooma is covered by the cost of 1 year phone service, if not, definitely by a year and a half. If the draw back is a guarantee that three years of service is free, and then a toss up after that, then I would be still be impressed that the money you will save would be tremendous in the cost alone.
Posted by Roger Silman | November 8, 2007 7:20 AM
Interesting Article. Great comments. I'm staying with my iPhone.
Thanks
Tom
Posted by Tom | November 8, 2007 1:09 PM
Staying with your iPhone? Such a deal... only $699 plus $69 a month.
That said, I do agree that personal telephone service is moving away from hardwired phones (be they conventional or VOIP). I haven't had POTS in my home in over five years.
For businesses, however, this could be a good idea. Too bad it is using subscriber's POTS lines to route other subscriber's calls. Between privacy issues and possible legal problems (others' calls seem to originate from your phone) there is lots of potential for problems.
Posted by Mike | November 12, 2007 12:43 PM