Comments on: Is Ooma Worth Your Moola?

By: Happy with Magic Jack

Happy with Magic Jack — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:03:48 +0000

I have had Magic Jack for 3 ½ years now and have been very happy with it, very little trouble. I was happy to see your review of the Omma phone because I knew very little about it and how it differs with the other VoIP services. You stated that Omma may be a better deal than Magic Jack because once the hardware is purchased you have phone service free for life, as you said, that’s if it stays in business.

After the initial price for the Hub and a Scout plus transferring your home phone number which is $200 + $65 + $40 = $305 not counting the extra Scouts for additional phone lines at $65 a pop. The $305 for the Omma is not bad considering that it cost 2 to 3 times that for a year of regular phone service. With Magic Jack it would take 13 years at its regular price and almost 19 years if you registered 5 years at a time to overtake the $300 dollar mark. You can also take Magic Jack out of country and call any phone in the US or Canada free.

The fact that Omma connects to the modem is a slight advantage in that it is not affected by software or services running on the computer. The fact that Magic Jack connects to the computer is what allows it to be totally portable which allows it to operate anywhere there is a computer with high speed internet connection.

Your report on Omma is very complete but I don’t see where it has has much of an advantage over Magic Jack.

By: Robin

Robin — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:25:14 +0000

Aren’t there monthly taxes you have to pay for this service? This can be up to $25 for local telco service – wonder how taxes on this service are calculated. So not completely free after the hardware is purchased?

By: Dan Randolph

Dan Randolph — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:59:20 +0000

Be aware that after I bought Ooma for about $200 and used it for six months with a second number that I can’t use the second number any more unless I buy the premium service.

All I wanted was one number with Ooma and to connect my Ooma to the internet only, but customer support said this was not allowed any more even though I had it hooked up this way since January.

My only alternative was to cancel the service since the extra $12 for a second line (premium service + access charges) was not worth it to me. Now I’m out the $200 for the hardware plus about $200 of my time in setup and getting the second number working in the first place, and two support calls after my current configuration stopped working. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

By: Fran

Fran — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:05:20 +0000

Thanks for the informative articles. I will soon become a “snowbird” wintering in Arizona and returning home to Idaho for about 6 months a year. After decades of having a standard land line phone service, I’m contemplating purchasing Ooma and porting my home number. I’d like to confirm a couple of things:
1) It sounds like I could take my Ooma device with me and use it in Arizona, the drawback being that I would have an Idaho phone number and potentially make other callers from AZ incur long distance charges calling me. Would I have to have the premier service with Ooma to do this?..there is a video on the OOma website that seems to indicate that is the case.
2) Is it correct that I could use Ooma with my current phones (I have 5 handsets throughout the house) without purchasing a Scout for each phone?
3) I understand I would need internet service wherever I want to use the service. Can 3g broadband card type service be utilized or does it need to be a Cable/DSL connection?

By: Mr_Curious

Mr_Curious — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:22:53 +0000

# Elmer Manankil says:
I have a question… if I take the device outside the USA and plug it in can I call the USA phone number.

# Spot Cool Tech Stuff says:
… answer is no — from outside the U.S. you can only call someone inside the U.S. who has an ooma hub but NOT any other phone numbers.

ME says:
my experience says otherwise… my brother (who is in a country somewhere in Asia) calls me (thru my AT&T mobile phone and Verizon landline) using his ooma phone (bought here in USA)… and I can also call his ooma number… hope this info helps.

Anyway, thanks to all the helpful people who responds to this forum… this is truly very informative… and after reading through all, I think I will be shifting to ooma, as well.

By: Barbara Savoia

Barbara Savoia — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:50:48 +0000

Why do I pay taxes each month on service that cost $0.00 ??? Barbara Savoia

By: Daniel Anderson

Daniel Anderson — Fri, 14 May 2010 00:29:23 +0000

can i transfer my cell phone number to the ooma system. If so would i first cancel cell phone and then apply for my past cell phone number

By: paul

paul — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:49:36 +0000

Hi all,

Thank you all, I learned a great deal from all the posting.
I have a minimum speed of AT&T DSL, will OOMA works?
I have been using Skype for over a year and make a lot of call during international business trips. The one thing I hate about Skype is many times it deduct my balance even though the connection was fail. The only way to contact them was through email but they never response. Looking forward to drop them.