Bill V
Well-Known Member
About 9 or 10 months ago, there was a discussion of Ooma units on this site. Did anyone ever end up getting one?
I'm seriously considering it, but would love to hear from some others out there who have first-hand experience.
My situation:
Currently have a landline with CenturyLink, and have 3Meg DSL through them as well. (Fastest DSL I can get, thanks to their crappy infrastructure.) Am paying around $65 for the two bundled. (This price, and all prices I type, are before taxes and fees). Currently, the DSL is then connected to a Wireless-G router.
Would like to get Netflix, but I suspect that the 3Meg DSL speed isn't going to allow me to "watch instantly" the way they advertise. (I've gotten a couple movies in the past via Amazon on Demand on my Tivo, which is also Wireless-G linked into my 3Meg DSL. If I didn't want to stop the movie part way through to allow the download to catch up, I would typically have to wait 3 to 4 hours after the download started before starting the movie. So I gotta think that the 3Meg DSL is the primary bottleneck, but that Wireless-N would help too.) As I said, I've maxed out the DSL available speed, so I'd need to switch providers--the main option being Comcast.
But to do that, I would need to either pay both CenturyLink and Comcast unbundled rates for phone and internet, or switch the phone to Comcast too, or switch the phone to a VOIP like Vonage or Ooma. (My wife does not want to drop the landline altogether, at least not for some time, so that's not an option.)
Comcast 12Meg ISP runs $58/month, unbundled. Their Digital Voice, unbundled, is $35--but if I bundle the two together, the knock $25 off the total, but then they add another $5 on to rent their modem. (Requires a modem which is both DOCSIS 2.0+ and EMTA, which for some reason are not easily available to the general public, and which Comcast won't allow use of privately owned ones anyway even if you have one. @#$%ing highway robbery.) So that would be $73. Not bad compared to the $65 I'm now spending, when you consider the speed increases. But...
If I skip digital voice, I can get my own DOCSIS 3.0 modem, skip the rental fee, and only pay the $58 a month. If I then get an Ooma ($200 currently at costco.com), I would have everything covered, still be able to use my current phones and phone number (which is why I won't be doing Magic Jack--they don't port numbers), be saving a few bucks a month, and have significantly better internet speeds.
That is, if Ooma is really any good. Which brings us back to the original question...
Thanks for any feedback!!!!
Bill
I'm seriously considering it, but would love to hear from some others out there who have first-hand experience.
My situation:
Currently have a landline with CenturyLink, and have 3Meg DSL through them as well. (Fastest DSL I can get, thanks to their crappy infrastructure.) Am paying around $65 for the two bundled. (This price, and all prices I type, are before taxes and fees). Currently, the DSL is then connected to a Wireless-G router.
Would like to get Netflix, but I suspect that the 3Meg DSL speed isn't going to allow me to "watch instantly" the way they advertise. (I've gotten a couple movies in the past via Amazon on Demand on my Tivo, which is also Wireless-G linked into my 3Meg DSL. If I didn't want to stop the movie part way through to allow the download to catch up, I would typically have to wait 3 to 4 hours after the download started before starting the movie. So I gotta think that the 3Meg DSL is the primary bottleneck, but that Wireless-N would help too.) As I said, I've maxed out the DSL available speed, so I'd need to switch providers--the main option being Comcast.
But to do that, I would need to either pay both CenturyLink and Comcast unbundled rates for phone and internet, or switch the phone to Comcast too, or switch the phone to a VOIP like Vonage or Ooma. (My wife does not want to drop the landline altogether, at least not for some time, so that's not an option.)
Comcast 12Meg ISP runs $58/month, unbundled. Their Digital Voice, unbundled, is $35--but if I bundle the two together, the knock $25 off the total, but then they add another $5 on to rent their modem. (Requires a modem which is both DOCSIS 2.0+ and EMTA, which for some reason are not easily available to the general public, and which Comcast won't allow use of privately owned ones anyway even if you have one. @#$%ing highway robbery.) So that would be $73. Not bad compared to the $65 I'm now spending, when you consider the speed increases. But...
If I skip digital voice, I can get my own DOCSIS 3.0 modem, skip the rental fee, and only pay the $58 a month. If I then get an Ooma ($200 currently at costco.com), I would have everything covered, still be able to use my current phones and phone number (which is why I won't be doing Magic Jack--they don't port numbers), be saving a few bucks a month, and have significantly better internet speeds.
That is, if Ooma is really any good. Which brings us back to the original question...
Thanks for any feedback!!!!
Bill
