March 22, 2012 11:39am by Team | 
Does anybody out there use the Ooma service? We all seem to like saving money on communication, so I figured this was relevant. I currently pay something like $35 a month to Vonage to keep a land line at home. Even though we do use it quite a bit, it still essentially seems like a waste of money.
How the Ooma Telo device works
A friend of mine at work has an Ooma and he says it is great. Basically you pay up front for the Ooma Telo device and then pay Ooma a small monthly fee (somewhere around $4) to cover fees and taxes or something. So lets calculate the break even point if I were to switch from Vonage to Ooma…
The Variables:
- Fixed Cost – The Ooma Telo costs $200 (it is actually less)
- Variables Cost – Monthly Ooma service is $5 (it is actually less)
- Current existing monthly cost for Vonage is $35
The Formula:
- Breakeven Point = Fixed Costs / (Current Monthly Costs – Variable Costs)
The Calculation:
- Breakeven Point (Months) = 200 / (35 – 5)
- Result = 6.67 Months
So if I were to buy an Ooma today, I would start saving money during the 7th month of service. That’s not too bad! What do you all think? Does anyone currently use Ooma?
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SEED!
3/24/12 Code 99908 450min +DMFL +100 = 1000min @79.99+tax
67861 – 60 minutes doubles for 19.99 – still effective 03/24/12.
The deal with Ooma is you get a dialtone and (after you buy the $200 box) your phone bill is FCC Taxes (about $3.85 per month). Sweet deal! But … can you live without Caller ID? The phone rings and you have no idea who is calling. My wife NEEDS Caller ID, it turns out … so you can get Ooma’s “Premier” Service for $9.99 per month or $119 anually. Then to “port” your existing number over is $40. Adding all this up may sound bad but keep reading. So I’m into Ooma $200 for the box, $40 to port, then with “Premier” and taxes I’m at $13 a month. Still cheaper than Vonage (on which I had 3 lines). So I call Vonage and say I’m moving to Ooma and they say “Let us give you UNLIMITED service for $9.99 a month, No Contract, FOREVER!” Vonage knows Ooma is out there and they price match! But keep reading. Now I’m down $240 and paying $13 a month for Ooma on Line 1 — while Line 2 and Line 3 are still with Vonage for about $13 a month each. I should be kicking myself but I’m not. Line 1 is our home line which (despite “Do Not Call”) was getting telemarketered to death. Ooma’s Premier Service has “Blacklist” Options that Vonage doesn’t. I turned that on and our home is a pleasant place again! Also, the Ooma Box can have “Caller ID” set by you. If Grandma calls from her Cell Phone instead of “Wireless Caller” your Caller ID comes up with “It’s Granny” or “Old Hag” or whatever you like. I don’t have to say “Hmm … that number looks familiar.” I like Vonage’s 3-Way Calling better, but Ooma has it’s positives as well. I kinda felt burned the deeper I got into Ooma, but now, the water feels fine … come on in!
I have been using this for 3 years now. Initial cost was 39.00 which included the phone jack and then 19.95 a year for service. I can call anywhere in the USA including Alaska and talk as long as I want. Never a long distance charge. If another person has the Magic Jack and they are out of the USA – say Mexico or anywhere else, you can call Magic Jack to Magic Jack and talk as long as you want for no charges. You use you computers high speed Internet and it works great! It includes caller ID and message service. A lot cheaper than the Ooma.
I have been using Magic Jack for 3 years now. Initial cost was 39.00 which included the phone jack and then 19.95 a year for service. I can call anywhere in the USA including Alaska and talk as long as I want. Never a long distance charge. If another person has the Magic Jack and they are out of the USA – say Mexico or anywhere else, you can call Magic Jack to Magic Jack and talk as long as you want for no charges. You use you computers high speed Internet and it works great! It includes caller ID and message service. A lot cheaper than the Ooma.
We live in the boonies and have been using Ooma (which we grabbed off Woot! for cheap)coupled with Google Voice for about a year and a half. We switched from a Verizon land-line and went to a local wireless internet service provider at the same time. The service has been without fault and we are paying less for high speed internet and phone than we were paying for phone and dial-up. Saving over a hundred dollars per year and getting better, faster service is a no brainer. We did have to get a new phone number but the only complaints came from our kids. Nobody knows numbers anymore, they just punch in a name.
I went with an Obi100 from Obihai for $45. You set it up through Obihai’s web site, and you can use 2 voip services. Google Voice is directly supported and is easy to set up. I wanted to keep my number, so after researching options and reading dozens of personal reviews, I added the Canadian company VOIP.ms (that’s their web site URL too) to my Obi100. It cost $25 to port my number over, and it took a few weeks – they have to contact your phone company who decides the date your service will be discontinued. After my number ported over, calls immediately began coming over the Internet, and call quality has been exceptional. You can elect a monthly residential service plan of $7.95/month. This has worked really well for me. I hope it will for you too!
I have had Ooma for about 3 years or more myself. I LOVE it. I paid for the Premiere Service so I could have calls forwarded to my cell, use the black list feature, and all kind of other COOL bells and whistles. I wouldn’t change a thing. They offer MORE than AT&T ever did for about 1/4 the cost. I paid $149 for the Ooma telo, $9.99 to port over my number and with the Premiere ($9.99) plus FCC fees, I pay about $11.25 a month. One hell of a deal to me! I’ve only had ONE outage but we do have great DSL service here.
Thanks a lot for the awesome comments. One of our team members here has used Ooma for a couple of years now and he loves it.
Just finished my installation of Ooma. Went great. Got the unit at Costco for $130 w/60 days premiere service. After porting my number (was not originally going to keep the premiere service) got a email from them offering the premiere for only $60 with 1 yr sign-up, or a total of $100($99.99) including the number porting (saved $20). Full caller ID, Number(s) Blocking, Call forwarding, email alerts, and crystal clear calls. So just $10.85 a month (including taxes). Only 30% what I was paying AT&T.:D
This is great news. I have yet to personally switch away from Vonage. I should have done it AGES ago.
I have had a OOMA phone for 4 years. I paid for the initial equipment & have never had to pay a dime since, no long distance carrier needed either. If you want to use your existing phone number you pay a one time fee. Caller ID & voice mail are included.
If you loose power though you loose service.
I have an Ooma paid $149.99 from amozon took 15 minutes to setup took 48 hours up and down to update it but after that i have no problems at all with it works perfect for $3.73 a month for taxes