Snagged the Ooma Telo a few months back when Woot had it last. It’s worked great. The first unit I got didn’t work, but Ooma provided excellent service and shipped me another one overnight that has worked ever since. Monthly bill is $3.47.
Figure out what you’re paying per month for phone. Then, imagine that the bill magically disappeared - forever. How much money is that?
This thing pays for itself in 2-3 months.
A real NO-BRAINER.
- No computer needed.
- Remove your home phone system from the street, plug this into any phone jack - viola - the whole house is on the OOMA.
- Works just like you had a telephone company phone system. No talent, computer skills, or doohickey needed.
- All calls and voicemails are stored and accessible at the OOMA website. See who is calling you, see who is being called at home.
- All Nationwide calls are free. FREE, DAMMIT.
- International calls a super duper cheap.
- It’s a cool black color. Mine’s hidden under the basement stairs, so it’s REALLY BLACK.
- As long as you have an internet connection, you have phone service.
- A second line is available for a nominal monthly fee.
- All Nationwide telephone calls are FREE. There is a small monthly fee ($3-$4) for 911 service and taxes. Big whoop.
- Ahh, forget it. At this point if you haven’t already pushed “Buy It Now”, you’re too dumb to realize what a great offer this really is.
We’ve had the Telo for over a year, and I love it! Very reliable and clear sound. No one even knows I don’t have a “real” landline. It operates just like your traditional landline does. Number porting from AT&T was a bit of a hassle, but smooth sailing since. Highly recommend this product!
No memberships, but you have to pay around $15(I think, probably varies by state laws)? for whatever taxes are associated with a phone in your area.
Works great. I think they now limit your minutes to 5000 outbound minutes per month. They also sell international long distance for prices that are similar to other internet based phones (for example china is around 2 cents a minute).
I use mine with google voice. Basically if I don’t answer my cell phone (or if it is dead or whatever) the ooma rings and I get a chance to answer it.
I just wanted to tell everyone that I am a big fan of the Ooma Telo and it does exactly as advertised really well. But there is also the Magic Jack Plus due out soon that advertises the same features. I honestly would still choose the Telo as it looks a lot nicer and functions well but I’m not sure what the MagicJack Plus will be priced at and depending on the price and the quality of service it could be a better purchase. Also the telo can be rooted to enable ssh but at the moment there aren’t a whole lot of extra features that rooting it provides other than having another embedded linux box.
Just my 2 cents on this woot. Oh yeah, I paid 179.99 at costco and at the time felt like I got a good deal. This in comparison is a steal
Edit: Just wanted to add one more thing I found. If you have premium service, don’t bother paying for the bluetooth dongle. Just buy any regular bluetooth usb stick and plug it in the back of the Ooma, it’ll recognize it and allow you to use your home phone to answer cell phone calls.
For anyone worried about 911 using Ooma: do NOT worry!
Two weeks ago, my wife’s sister had a house fire, and I called 911 to make sure she had gotten through as she was on a cell phone with a poor signal. As I was dialing 911, I somehow hit the “End” button on my cordless phone, and, thinking I hadn’t even dialed the number yet, was about to dial 911 again when the dispatcher called us back!
It turns out, she had gotten through, and was on the line with another dispatcher. As long as your internet is working, Ooma is working!
We had Charter’s phone service, but it was only as reliable as the internet, so I switched to Ooma and haven’t looked back.
I actually got Ooma so long ago, I have the Hub and Scout model, and I was grandfathered in and don’t even pay the taxes. 
For once, being an early adopter paid off for me. LOL
911 Service works with this device.
Alarm phone service is not recommended, OOMA does not say why.
I have my internet modem, and OOMA on a battery-backup UPS. Then I have a non-powered phone (old cheapo) plugged into a home phone jack (using OOMA to provide the dial tone). This way, in case of power failure, I’m covered.
Now if only Comcast could keep the damn internet connection UP longer than a month without a phone call from me…
We got Ooma several months ago - switched from Vonage. No looking back. We pay less than $4.00 a month for the service. Set up took 5 or 10 minutes and no trouble since.
Wait. I have no Broadband ISP. Once I cancel my Verizon phone service, how does Ooma even get a dial-tone through the phone jack?
Ooma didnt worked for me…
I bought it last time it was on woot, it slows down the internet, and there are a lot of extras to pay for … Customer service was not very helpfull …
Google Voice connected to the cellphone worked way better for me, and Magic Jack works better for less … It wont charge you extra for forwarding calls.
What’s going on here? Last time this was on Woot everyone was moaning how this company was on the edge of bankruptcy, doom and gloom etc.
I recall people saying, “Enjoy it while it lasts” Anything different now?
I want one! But internet alone here costs me as much as internet plus phone, so I don’t save anything by canceling my phone service!
No membership fee.
There is a small tax/911 service fee that OOMA gets charged from the REAL phone company, OOMA passes it on to you every month. It’s like $4 bucks, and can be paid directly from your credit card through them.
Add my positive review to the…are those unanimous positive reviews that I see above me?
It’s a gorgeous looking unit, the service works fine, and it has a lot of features that are fantastic.
However, faxing has been an intermittent problem. I tried some hints (setting changes, dialing *99 beforehand, more) and it works most of the time. But I’m not sure I’m receiving faxes. That’s the one thing that bugs me.
Any experience with using this on international travel? My daughter travels often and this would make a great way for her and her traveling companions to call home on the cheap.
Also, any idea what the data rates are like for a decent call? I mean, if I have a 300kbs/150kbs DSL connection, will this still work? Would it work with an android fone set up as a wifi hotspot over Verizon over 3g?
Thanks!
–mop
There’s only one reason to NOT get this OOMA VOIP Home Phone system from WOOT for $144.
They could be out of stock already.
That’s all I got, folks.
There can’t possibly be another reason.
I got this about 6 months ago on a previous Woot, and, overall, have been satisfied. However, we have the cheap-o $19.99/month cable internet, which is very slow, and it barely supports the Ooma phone line. If you are on the phone and you try to download something from the “Internet tubes” it clogs the pipeline and the phone sounds like a cheap cell phone in the bottom of a well.
I can’t blame Ooma, though - I have to blame my ISP for artifially slowing my download speed and my Scotch heritage for making me refuse to pay any more for internet service.
I already have one. That’s all I got.
I got it the last woot. Once you get rid of your landline, if you have DSL with Verizon, it turns into a dry loop connection where no dial tone is needed. They do threaten to jack up your rate to over $40 a month, but if you talk to them, you can lock into a one year contract for about $32/month.
Only drawback I’ve had with it is with calling certain numbers, I think they’re google voice numbers or something, but sometimes I don’t get the answering machine message or it just dies and hangs up.
As for static on remote lines, if you have the phone close to other devices, it can pick up a hum, mine did until I moved it a foot or two away.
I also got premier and the bluetooth dongle. All my previous research indicated that 3rd party dongles didn’t work, I guess someone else got lucky. I also had the phone set up to forward to my cell phone. Now when the phone rings, I can’t tell if they’re calling my landline or my cellphone until I look at the caller id as they both ring. Before if it was the landline, both would ring, if the cellphone, just the cellphone.