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- HOTNESS UNHOT
Ends at 10PM PDT. Woot! has the refurbished Ooma Telo VoIP - Free Home Phone Service with Unlimited U.S. Calling, Caller-ID, Call-Waiting, 911 & Voicemail with No Monthly Fee for $140 + $5 shipping = $145 shipped. Works with any corded or cordless phone; easy installation with no computer required.
$145
While there is no monthly fee, you still pay monthly taxes and FCC charges. Typically $3.57/month.
Also Ooma will push hard to up sell you to their Premium service at an additional $9.99/mo + taxes.
Take a look at an Obi box if you don't mind a more complicated setup using Google voice.
http://www.amazon.com/OBi100-Telephone-Adapter-Service-Bridge/dp/B004LO098O
As you can see on Amazon user ratings are running 5 stars so a great product.
The Obi box can be had for around $50 and then calls are totally free.
Down sides, no 911 and hard to port a land line number to Google Voice since they only allow wireless porting for some reason. If you don't want to port a number it's a simpler process.
You can port your land line to a cell phone then to Google voice, that's what I did. $20 per port.
The Obi box can access other paid services too so if Ooma doesn't float your boat there may be one through Obi that does. Google voice might start charging in the future so keep that in mind but I doubt it would be more than Ooma.
Skip this thing. I don't understand why people even need home phones any more with unlimited cellular at $40 or less per month. If you're worried about reliability, your cable connection isn't any more reliable than your cell phone. If you still need to buy something for home (bad cell signal maybe?) then buy an Obitalk 110 from AMZN for $50 and use Google Voice.
Obitalk does not allow 911 nor is it reliable. I occasionally get dropped calls with Obi and GV. One caveat about this device is that Ooma charges $60 to re-subscribe the box if you cancel service. That affects resale value. Ooma also is not free. They have a pretty good plan at $15/month with lots of features. Their cheapest plan has you paying FCC taxes and fees which came to about $3/month for me. This plan is just a dial tone service with absolutely no extra features. The Obi with GV is ~$50 for the device and totally free. I use it as an office phone and tolerate the dropped calls. YMMV
I only rarely need the wired home phone system but cell service in my house is poor. A good solution for me has been Call Centric with an ATA (analog telephone adapter) and a minute purchase plan. The recurring monthly charge is about $3.50 for E911 and my Verizon ported #. The system has many features and haven't had a dropped call yet. I connected the ATA to my home hard-wired phone lines (easy) and, together with the cordless phones, it supplies a total of 11 without issues of any sort. The ATA , two phones, modem and router are connected to a large UPS for power backup.
Vonage as been rock solid reliable with good sound for me for about 5 years. They have their free to world plan for $25, but if you prod them a bit they have a $9.99 plan with free incoming and 100 min outgoing. It gives free emailed messages, transcription service, 411 and ability to use your existing cell phone with it to make cheap international calls at the vonage rage (.03) instead of your cell carrier's rate (.50) Looking at MagicJack+ with the wall adapter, but believe there are still solid reasons for home phone service.
You need a home phone because cell service in many homes just sucks, like in my home. I got Ooma last year and love it. Attached a cordless phone to it and it works great. We still have the landline, but dropped the long distance component, so traded $30 something a month for $3 something. Yes, Ooma will try to sell you their premium service for an extra $10 a month, which is a great service if you need it. You get it free for the first month or so. But to give Ooma credit they emailed me in advance of the end of my free month to let me know it was ending so I could cancel it before they started charging my credit card for the extra $10 a month.
Having a home-based service is a good idea with younger kids around the house. Providing access to emergency services is more easily done with set phones around the house. I see 8 year olds with cell phones but I sure wouldn't have confidence in them having the phone on them when they need it. Also, for those that have home-based monitoring/check-in for medical reasons, most of those systems are tied to a phone jack. Will work with Ooma-like devices but not cellphones.
All in all, this is a cheap way to go.
I picked one up from Costco about a year ago, works excellent, crystal clear quality, always up and running, very very easy to setup, and looks slicks as well. Only $3.47/month tax, no other charges. Cancelled my home phone service and saved $30/month by getting this. Paid for itself in like 6 months....
For those who ask why get this if have cell....well, for those of us who have crappy cell reception, this product serves a great purpose. Sure, if you have great cell service, then don't bother with this or any other home phone service...
Concur with #6. I have been with Vonage for 9 years now and have them in the office as well. It works particularly well if you have international calls to make, because essentially they are included in the $25/m fee. The sound is rock solid and well worth it.
We've been using Ooma for 13 months. We chose the basic service ($3.50/month for taxes), and we've had no problems with it. Rock solid reliability and good quality. Regarding #4/techsupport's comments - the basic service has:
- caller ID
- voicemail, that can be accessed from the box itself or online from anywhere
- online call blocking setup
- online call logs
and more. So I wouldn't say it has "no extra features".
And as for "aggressively marketing the premium service"? I haven't noticed any emails, ads or anything else to suggest that.