Take control of your dialtone with ooma
Posted by Joe on December 18th, 2007
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We recently reviewed ooma, a new VoIP services that promises to “free your dialtone” by eliminating monthly phone bills, and found that it is extremely feature rich and represents a great value for most consumers (particularly those that make primarily or exclusively calls within the United States). What makes ooma different than other VoIP providers like Vonage or voip.com is that they don’t charge any monthly fees. 
Subscribers pay $399 for a ‘hub’ which about the size of a paper back book and looks like a cross between a standard answering machine and an ipod. The hub connects to your broadband Internet connection and a standard telephone. The whole set up takes about 10 minutes and is extremely intuitive.
Once the hub is set up, ooma subscribers can make calls anywhere in the United States for free (International calls can be made for a small per minute fee that varies by country).
The upfront cost of the hub may sound steep, but if you do the math you will quickly see that ooma represents a great long term value. For example, if you were to use the ooma service for two years after purchasing the hub your effective monthly cost would be about $16.60 per month which is a much as 30% less than many other VoIP providers we have reviewed.
ooma also has several unique features, such as the ability “split” a single phone line and make or receive multiple calls at once (which requires an ooma “scout” device), that the rest of the VoIP service providers we have seen simply can’t provide.
Walt Mossberg, Personal Technology Columnist and resident tech guru at the Wall Street Journal, gave ooma a glowing review a few months ago. Walt liked many of the same features, such as the long term savings and the ability to integrate ooma with your existing phone line.
All in all, we really like ooma and highly recommend it. If you want more information on ooma you can read our review or visit their site directly.
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6 Responses to “Take control of your dialtone with ooma”
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December 21st, 2007 at 11:32 am
Before recommending such a product, you should examine more than just the stated up-front cost. You need to look at the security and privacy issues that have been extensively addressed in many posts. Also, as for the cost, what Ooma doesn’t say much about, they require that you add Call Forwarding to your phone line (about $4 a month?) if you keep your phone line connected, which is highly recommended to get reliable 911 service. I don’t see that you factored that into the cost analysis. And they only promise free service for 3 years.
Oh, and add in Scouts for the normal home with 3 or 4 extensions.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:02 pm
That being said, we still feel that ooma represents a great value even including some of the additional costs you brought up.
If you take into account the 3 year minimum guarantee of service then the $399 upfront cost of the ooma hub is effectively $11.08 month.
The ooma scout costs $39.95 upfront which is an additional $1.11 per month per scout purchased.
I know forwarding fees vary per phone provider and location, but I think your $4 estimate is a good one.
So, all in a typical ooma subscriber that chooses to keep their traditional phone line and would effectively be spending somewhere between $16.19 and $19.52 per month over a three year period(depending on the number of scouts they decide to purchase).
Even at the the higher end of the estimate, $19.52 per month, ooma is still $3-$4 cheaper than many other VoIP providers we have reviewed.
Also, keep in mind that ooma is currently the only major VoIP provider that offers the combined broadband and land line option. So if you compare broadband calling service costs only then ooma is definitely a cost effective option for most consumers since the monthly cost would range between $12.19 to $15.52 depending on the number of scouts a subscriber may need.
When buying the ooma hub, and their service in general, people are making a long term investment.
The most important factor to point out is that ooma offers a 60 day no questions asked return policy so it is relatively easy for people to try for themselves and determine whether or not ooma is the right solution for their needs.
Thanks again for the comment and for stopping by, Mike.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
[...] This new Vonage specific router will offer subscribers a number of advanced features but is primarily meant to make the process of setting up and maintaining a voice-over-IP connection even easier by displaying messages and errors and plain speak (versus technical error numbers and codes). The V-Portal is a very nice looking device that rivals the sleek lines of ooma’s hub device. Both V-Portal and ContactBook are part of Vonage’s new “MyVonage” product strategy which is the name for a group of current and planned next generation enhancements for Vonage subscribers. Given Vonages leadership in the VoIP market it is great to see them to continue to innovate and push the entire Internet telephone market forward. [...]
February 4th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hi,
Man this is a great post. Thank you for putting this out there for all of us. It has helped alot!
February 18th, 2008 at 11:58 am
i have been a vonage customer for three years. I wouldn’t recommend them because their tech service stinks.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your opinion of the Vonage service. We strongly believe in providing choice to all consumers, which is why we have reviewed dozens of VoIP services and published reviews only on the top Internet telephone providers on our website.
If you are unhappy with Vonage, I suggest you check out our free VoIP comparison and service reviews at: http://www.nextadvisor.com/voip_services/
Thanks again for your comments!
Joe