Ooma Telo VoIP Home Phone System

Do you know if this supports VoIP phones, like a Cisco one? I have happened to acquire one, and would like to use it.

Found a good ooma telo 101 tutorial for those who are miserable about the product like me

Ooma Telo

The previous model, the Ooma Hub, promised no phone bill EVER. But then the government noticed they were giving away phone service for free and told them that they had to collect tax even without income. So Ooma decided to keep that promise and not require people who bought the original Oooma Hub to pay taxes/fees–Ooma pays those out of pocket. So with the Ooma Telo, they only ask you to pay the taxes/fees that the government requires in your area. The phone service and all features in the non-premier agreement itself are still free of charge. For most areas, the taxes/fees comes out to about $3/mo. Use their tax calculator to see what your’s will be.

First question: No

Second question: Yes

I have a MagicJack. It does the exact same. It only cost $19.95/year vs this for $35-45/year. I even travel with my MagicJack and it works great with hotel phones without any extra charges!!

Wonder why would one get this?

You are required to pay $11.75 per year starting the second year of service

Edit - Apparently I live in a nice low tax zip code! YMMV

And my old phone company found ways to charge me that much in fees a month. Less than a dollar a month is well worth all that you save.

Why not just get a Magic Jack? A lot cheaper.

I paid $160 at Costco on sale about a year ago. It was a deal then, and is still a deal now. I ported my home number to it for $40 about 2 months in, slight hassle and 4 days after they said it would be done, it was. Taxes for me are $12/yr, and don’t start until the 2nd year. The first 2 years were included with the unit. The premier service is nice, but I couldn’t justify the extra cost. This wont run over a satellite connection, but works good with my wireless. I have Motorola Canopy 900MHz from local ISP (in the boonies) and it works fine for this. I recommend buy. I would if I didn’t own one already.

$40 to port #. $30ish Taxes a year.

Easy explanation: I have one of these. If you have a broadband internet connection, you can have a home phone number you don’t need to pay for. Instead of paying a phone company to maintain a phone line, you plug this thing into the wall, and essentially become your own phone company. You pay the government like $11 A YEAR for free local and domestic long distance calls, with caller ID. If you want some fancy features, you pay Ooma a little more, but it’s still way less than you’re paying your phone company. It’s virtually plug-and-play. You just hook it into your router.

The call quality of an Ooma is generally much better than a Magic Jack, but it’s also possible to run all your house’s existing phones (I have 6) off one Ooma unit. A Magic Jack can’t do that.

I have not tried this in another country, but I have theorized about it before too. I believe it would work. I have moved my Ooma across town before. Once it provisions itself by connecting to the Ooma server, it is capable of receiving and making calls. More evidence: Their site says for their E911 service to work, it is your responsibility to tell them if your address has changed. I really don’t think they care where the device is located.

These work great! The best part is multiple outgoing lines. If you pick up a phone that is already in use, press a key, and get your own dial tone. No need to pay for a 2nd (or xth) phone line!

I have had Magic Jack too, this is by far a superior product. You don’t have to have the computer on for one thing. better quality, better features. If all you are looking for is a quick way to make cheap calls, Magic Jack works. But if you are really looking for something that compares to the quality of high end VOIP or land lines, this is much better.

Magic Jack charges you a monthly fee. This doesn’t.

Read the privacy statement for MagicJack. It is literally spyware. There isn’t even an uninstall program for it, and MagicJack monitors/remembers every call you make.

Ooma is ad-free. Get Ooma, burn MagicJack. Their “company” comes back to a P.O box in Florida,

It appears people have issues with MagicJack more often than they do with other VOIP services (see Amazon reviews, etc). This is also a more elegant product with a solid feature set.

Also, see the response above me :slight_smile: I didn’t even know about all of that stuff…

Can I block calls without having “Premier” Service?

Yes. Your phone company will take about a month to give it up.

Does not require a computer to be on to use the service.