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- First reviewSeptember 15, 2010
- Last reviewSeptember 15, 2010
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- Average rating5
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ObiMatt87's Reviews
This hub works with your high-speed Internet and your home phones to deliver VoIP phone services and supports up to 4 Ooma Telo handsets. With easy setup, you can enjoy unlimited U.S. calling and low international rates.*
Posted by: ObiMatt87
from San Antonio, TX
I'm now an Ooma convert! I researched this product (and other digital phone options) over the last year while I was deployed and as we moved and got set up in a new home decided to take the plunge and get one instead of a traditional land line. I had a little apprehension about how well it would work, but after reading a million positive personal reviews decided it was worth a go.
Our previous service was through AT&T for a basic, basic phone service, with only 200 mins of long distance a month and no caller ID or other bells and whistles. That met our needs, but after surcharges, taxes, and other fees, that "basic" service was almost $50 each month! I was determined to find something that was cheaper and offered more features, particularly not having to worry about long distance minutes.
So....got the Telo, established cable internet service (You DO want it to be fast enough, but today most cable/DSL service should be just fine), and followed the instructions to hook 'er up. Experience with the different stages:
PACKAGING: Nicely done. Classy, and well laid out.
INSTRUCTIONS: Basic fold-out sheet designed to allow anyone to hook it up. I'm pretty tech-saavy, but it would not have mattered. Anyone can follow the well-thought-out instructions. Seriously.
ACCOUNT AND HARDWARE SET-UP: If your internet service is established, everything you need will already be in place. You just plug this in between the source outlet and your cable/DSL modem. All hardware parts you need for the Telo itself are included (Basically just an Ethernet cable and power cable). You can use ANY phone with this system. I plugged our old base station into the Telo and our regular phones work just great. Just turn off the answering machine if your base has one, as the Telo will serve that purpose, and tends to be much clearer anyway!
You WILL need access to the internet during set-up to establish your phone number, so make sure you've got your computer fired up. I was using our laptop wirelessly at the time, and it worked great.
When you go online to the Ooma site to set up your new account and pick a phone number, we found the process to be very smooth. You're given a choice of numbers after you choose the area code you want (love that feature) or you can choose to have your old number ported from your legacy service, which takes a few weeks. We went new, picked one, and voila! we were in business instantly.
You WILL need your credit card handy when you establish the account, as you WILL have to pay the federal taxes/fees for your area. You can get an estimate of these by punching in your ZIP on the Ooma site. For us, it will be $3.47 a month. Woo hoo! I'll take that over $50 a month any day. Even if you keep the Premier features (you get a free 60-day trial upon set-up), that's still only $10 more a month). Those additional features and associated fees are what Ooma is basing its business model on, so hopefully they'll keep making enough to stay in business. They've lasted since 2007 or so, so something must be working. Either way, I'll have this bad boy paid off in 6 months based on savings alone, so no worries!
CALL QUALITY: So far, everything has worked as advertised right out of the box. One thing I have noticed--and truly no BS--the call clarity is excellent. I find that ironic, considering we had a dedicated phone line before, but it really is good. Every once and a while we have noticed a tiny delay, kind of like a cell phone delay, but not always. Believe I'll look at tweaking the settings per what folks have written about with regard to the QoS stuff. Minor issue at the most.
BOTTOM LINE: No dealing with the phone company, no more worries about large bills, and many more features than we ever had before. I love being able to be anywhere on the road and dial in either via phone or the Ooma site itself and check phone messages. Really simple, very clear, and just works great.
Thanks, Ooma dudes, for a great product.
What's great about it: Easy set-up, low bills, clarity of calls, quality of build
What's not so great: Nada
I would recommend this to a friend!
Ease of Use
5
Features
5
Performance
5
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