Ooma

Availability: United States
Founded in: 2005

Ooma is a home phone, unlimited long distance calling solution for consumers in the US.

How Ooma Works

Plug Ooma Hub or Ooma Telo into your Internet. Plug your phone into Ooma and start calling. Long distance calls are free and you won’t have to deal with a high monthly home phone bill.

Ooma Hardware

Ooma’s service works with their Ooma hardware. Ooma hub costs $219.99. Ooma Telo is $299.99

Ooma Telo vs. Ooma Hub

Ooma Hub supports a land line if there is an Internet outage. So you’ll always have a working phone. Ooma Telo does not have this capability.

Ooma Telo has more features, though, than Ooma Hub. Ooma Telo has:

• An Online phonebook
• HD Voice for perfect call clarity
• Additional USB ports to add additional phones

Both have 911 calling access.

Other Ooma Products:

Ooma Scout

The Ooma Scout extends Ooma service to other phone jacks in your home (it is an accessory to the Ooma Hub or Ooma Telo). The Scout allows you to have access to all your Hub or Telo features, but from different locations in your house. Just plug Scout into another phone jack. Amazon lists the Ooma Scout at $113.03.

Ooma: Standard Costs and Premier Plans

Ooma does not charge a monthly fee to use their unlimited service. However, there are taxes and fees associated with Ooma, based on where you live. Ooma posts tax and fee amounts by zip code on its website.

Ooma offers a Premier plan for $9.99 a month; an annual Ooma premier subscription costs $119.99 per year and includes a free number port (with the month-to-month plan, a number port is a one-time charge of $39.99).

All Ooma systems come with a free 60-day Premier trial. Some Premier features include:

• 3 way call conferencing
• Call forwarding to your mobile phone
• A backup number to forward calls to when your Internet is out

If you do not wish to subscribe, you must cancel the service within 60 days.

Ooma publishes their fair use limit minute as 5000 minutes per month, regardless of Premier status.

International Calling

Ooma offers cheap international calls at per minute rates, starting at less than a penny a month ($.014 per minute to Canada). Additionally, Ooma can travel internationally - as long as you have access to a high speed Internet connection. If you have that high speed Internet connection, you can call the US from abroad.

Ooma also offers 500 and 1000 minute international calling plans to 70 countries. Unlimited calling only applies to calls within the United States.