ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills Get it now!

You can see the hype in the product description, you can see why ooma is a good idea money-wise, and so many people have written long reviews about the service. For me it came down to, why take the leap with this service? It sounds too good to be true, there has to be a hitch somewhere. So far I haven't found one.

Hardware is excellent, very well built. These units look almost Bang and Olefson in their simplicity and elegance. They look darn nice. The packaging is even kind of cool, a bit Apple-esque.

Instructions. I'm an instruction reader. I spent about 10 minutes reading both books. That is seriously not necessary at all. The Quick Start Guide, that's all you really need.

Activation - you will have to activate the unit before you install. There's a decision point that is not obvious, and it has to do with your current phone number. Ultimately I chose, port my old phone number. That's probably the safest cheapest way to go. After you activate ooma on the the website, and do the install, everything will work just fine. I'm going to try this service for a month or so, and then call ooma to actually shut off my landline (I could also never call them to shut off my landline service). Ooma will work perfectly in that mode. When you dial out, local calls are routed through your landline automatically; and long distance is routed through ooma. Easy as pie, simple and intuitive. Incoming calls, don't really care; people still call my same old phone number. If this service is really that great, I'll pay the $39.99 to have my landline shut down (it takes 3-4 weeks to complete the shut down).

Set up - it's not 10 or 15 minutes as a lot of people have written. That's almost impossible to install one that quickly. The tricky part, you need to be next to your DSL or Cable Modem, your router (if you have one), a phone line, and an electrical outlet. DSL installs will probably be easier than cable modem installs. But, you'll end up doing some rerouting of wires to do this install. I had to think pretty carefully about where things were going. The install right now is very ugly, but won't be too hard to dress up nicely.

So first impressions, this is a darn nice device. The forums and reviews debating this system all seem a bit old and wrong right now. The device appears to work exactly as advertised, no hidden costs, no surprises.

Let's all hope their business model is sound and they stay around for a long time.

Update - After 2.5 weeks of use, this device is incredible. The call quality is better than anything we ever had from ATT / landline. I too have noticed a tiny amount of low level background hiss once in a while, nothing objectionable at all. I've been on receiving and sending end of calls and quality is very clear. Use is absolutely intuitive, easy to understand. I'm about ready to port my number now.Get more detail about ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills.