Save ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills

Before I was even offered this product, I kept looking through the small grouping of reviews here and asked myself, "do all of these people work for Ooma?" Needless to say, I was a bit skeptical of this newfound device and its promise, echoed by the reviewers here, that you'd have sound quality better than your landline, with no monthly bills and tons of extras. So, when I got my box and eagerly set it up in an attempt to sneer in a review about how wrong everyone was, I found myself shocked. This thing ain't bad at all!

Setting up is a complete breeze that took all of five minutes, as advertised. Basically, you go to the ooma site, create an account, pair up the Ooma hub's information to your account, decide whether to port over your phone number or choose a new one and you're pretty much done. As far as actual set-up is concerned, you just use an enclosed ethernet cord to run from your modem to the device, then from your device to your router and you're done with that portion. You'll also need to plug in the hub into your wall outlet, then the phone into your hub. It sounds more complex on paper than in actuality, and there's plenty of pictures for those not tech-savvy.

The way it works is that you have to have either the hub or the scout for each phone. Here is where you could potentially spend more money than you anticipate because each receive will need to have a scout, which costs extra money. One way to work around this (and the way mine is set up) is by using a cordless phone. I have two cordless phones, with a hub and a scout, and I only need to plug in the cordless phone hub into the ooma hub for both phones to work.

I've tested the ooma, keeping my original phone line, for almost a month and I am content with the sound quality. Originally, I was a bit miffed at the sound quality. There was a pronounced echo of my voice flying back at me that the first time I heard it, I stopped talking. This is a problem I've heard some people deal with, with other VoIP services. However, I was able to fix it by changing the upload speed in the settings menu of the device; this completely fixed the problem and I haven't had an issue since.

One problem I do have with the device is the (for lack of better title) "ooma sound" that happens when you turn on the phone or when someone connects with it. It makes this brief swirling sound that transforms into the ring tone when you pick up. That itself isn't annoying. But when someone else picks up, the sound comes back and a couple times that's happened, I had to repeat myself to the caller. It's also a bit distracting to be trying to greet the person/ask a question when the sound starts. I haven't discovered a way to turn it off.

EDIT: According to a helpful commenter below, I have discovered that you can turn off the "ooma sound" by calling the ooma support line. Will be checking this out, but that definitely takes away one of my big complaints!

Another issue that isn't unique to ooma but VoIP in general is that if you lose internet connection or if something causes your connection to degrade, you will lose voice quality or, in the case of no internet, lose your phone service. Additionally, you need to have broadband internet; my internet provider provides me with speeds up to 15 MB/s and, for me, I have had absolutely no issues. But I can't say if that will be true with slower speeds.

That said, there are some really nice features, not taking into consideration the "standard" ones like caller ID, etc. For instance, you can log into your ooma lounge to listen to your voice messages or call from a separate phone to hear them, delete them, etc. An even cooler feature, for me, is the ability to set up a text message service or email service that will send a text to your cell phone or an email to your email account that lists the phone number, the fact you have a voice message and information on how to access your phone from away. It's a cool feature that many probably won't use, but it just adds to the user-friendliness of the system.

And, of course, the best feature that is the main reason to look to ooma: no monthly phone bill. This is one of those items where the $250 is a steal. With my phone bill of $25 a month, in ten months you'll have paid for the device. Everything after that is just gravy. The Ooma really surprised me. I went in with a cynical frame of mind, expecting the reviews to be blowing smoke, but I'm coming out of it with the plans on canceling my phone service this week. I can't think of any better praise than that.Get more detail about ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills.