Ooma questions

[Tom Schindler]

IIRC, someone here is running Ooma as their phone service. I think it is TJR, but I could be mistaken.



How long have you had it and do you like it? What is the yearly fee, if any? Would you get it again?



The cable company raised rates another $15.00/month so I am going to threaten to drop my phone service if they don't lower my bill by $20.00/month. If I drop my phone service, it will go down $40.00/month.



I want options to drop the home line, or possibly drop the home line completely. Not sure, but I want input.



Any help is appreciated.





Tom

 

[Les]

Use to be able to get a basic phone line for about $15 a month. Haven't checked lately.

 

[Richard L]

I have a MagicJack and it has run flawlessly for over 2 years. I'm sure you have seen them on TV. They initially cost $40 but that includes your first year of telephone service. After the first year, the charge is only $20 a year with unlimited long distance, voice mail, caller ID, etc.



The only requirement is you need a broadband Internet connection. I have a fast cable internet service but super high speed is not a requirement. Both of my daughters have MagicJacks and they both work great. My daughter in Ohio uses a Verizon Cellular card for Internet access (no cable or DSL service and Satellite is too $$$) there is a software setting for wireless cell cards and hers works just fine.



...Rich

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Was not me... But I was considering.



TJR

 

[Bill V]

Caymen, I think it was me that you're thinking of.



First of all, see the message linked below, which I wrote shortly after installing it. Will tell you quite a bit about the first impressions--mostly positive.



Have now had it a couple more months--and still mostly positive. My wife has reported a couple times that she has had problems calling long distance. But she did so in passing, and so nonchalantly that I haven't had a chance to elevate it on my priority list to contact Ooma's customer service about it. I'm not sure if it's something on their end, or mine. (I've noticed that some things work slightly differently with Ooma than regular phone service, and I'm wondering if something like dialiing or not dialinig a 1 on long distance may be one of them. I don't know which my wife used. I'm sure she just switched to her cell phone for that and continued, hence the lack of any real concern on our end so far.)



But all in all, it's been very good--especially for the price. Paid something like $180 at Costco for the unit, paid $40 for Ooma to port our old phone number, and then pay somewhere between $3 and $4 a month for things like FCC charges. No other costs whatsoever. Am paying slightly more for internet service, now that it's not bundled with phone service, but the combined overall costs still went down quite significantly. (But you'd be best off calculating that impact yourself.)



Let me know if you have any other questions--but like I said, be sure to read the link below first!



Bill

 

[Bill V]

P.S. Reasons I chose Ooma over MagicJack:



--Can't port an existing phone number to MagicJack

--Nearly all reviews I've found online (both by consumers in message boards, and reviews by tech magazines and the like) rate Ooma's sound quality much higher. That's not to say that MagicJack's sound quality is rated poorly--it's usually rated as acceptable or better--it's just that Ooma's is typically seen as significantly better than theirs.

--My understanding is that MagicJack only works when your computer is running. Ooma doesn't need your computer--it just needs a live internet connection.



Can definitely see reasons why MagicJack may be better for some people, though. Review both (and others) and decide for yourself...

 

[Bill V]

FYI, for us, the pricing was that we had $77/month with the phone company for both phone and internet service. The internet service was about 3Meg, if I remember correctly--whatever it was, it was the fastest speed they could offer us because of the distance from our house to the nearest hub (or whatever it's called). (The advertised 3Meg was consistent with my test results.)



We dropped them completely, and instead went to Comcast. At first, we were at $63/month for their 10Meg internet service. (Although it consistently tests at closer to 25-30Meg. From what we've heard from friends and neighbors, that's unusually high--the only reason we can think of that ours is going so much faster is that we bought our own modem, rather than renting Comcast's.) Then, talking to one of their technicians, they pointed out that if I added the local basic cable (with only local channels), the bundle was actually cheaper, at $60 month. We didn't want the TV service from them--we actually prefer the over-the-air service, with higher signal quality and fewer pay-per-view ads--so we just wired the coax in the house into two separate systems--one that caries the internet service to the modem, and the other that carries the TV service from the antenna to the entertainment centers. Works great, and saves a few bucks a month. We don't have cable TV service--haven't for about 7 years, and likely never will, especially with the growth of internet-based services like Netflix being available on TV.

 

[Richard L]

Bill V,



You are correct that for MagicJack to work, you must leave your computer on...I don't find that an issue since I have 3. One desktop in my office where I have my MagicJack installed, as well as a laptop and a netbook. I always leave my desktop on all the time anyway since I have some scheduling software that is always running and sending me reminders.



A nice feature of MagicJack is that even if your computer is off, it will still take voice messages and it sends these messages to you as email attachments. In my case, I have all of my emails forwarded to my Blackberry where I can receive the voice mail message left on my home phone even if I am not at home, or my desktop computer is not running (ie: power failure).



I have a Panisonic wireless base station phone connected to the MagicJack and 2 other wireless extensions connected (Living room, Bed room)



Before I bought my MagicJack, I was a bit skeptical and the review online were mixed. Some people loved them and others thought it was a piece of junk that did not work.



When I bought mine it worked perfectly out of the box just as advertised. I did notice that there was a software patch for anyone who was not able to get their MagicJack to work, which I assume was based on specific computer configurations, or perhaps certain ISP's. I have had two software upgrades automatically installed on my MagicJack and I don't know what they did, but the first one added the ability to use a computer with a wireless cellular Internet connection, like my daughter uses.



As for voice/sound quality, I don't see any difference between the MagicJack and the digital phone service I had before. but I'm sure that the sound quality can vary based on the quality of the connection just like any phone. The quality is definetly better than cell phones and if I do get poor quality, it's always because I am talking to someone who is using a cell phone, so that is not a good benchmark of sound quality...:grin:



The only issue I ever had is the fact that you can get a disconnected call much like when a cell phone drops your call. The phone indicates I am still connected, but the communications is lost (neither party can hear the other). These are very rare, but they do happen about once every few months and seem to occurr after a long connection of over an hour. Not sure if that is a MagicJack, Phone, or Internet issue...but even conventional landline calls can get disconnected without warning.



If you have a MagicJack you can get a discount on service renewals for 5 years at about $69 which reduces the usual $20 per year charge, down to about $14 per year.



...Rich



...Rich