 Excellent design, service and value |
| Review Date: October 15, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ashok Aiyar, New Orleans, LA United States |
We purchased an Ooma Hub & Scout in April 2009 to replace a Vonage VoIP connection. We are very satisfied with the hub, and therefore purchased an Ooma Telo for a second location. This review describes our Ooma Telo experience so far, and compares it to the Hub/Scout.
The Telo is well designed and sleek. The controls are touch controls and very sensitive. There is a USB port in the back - presumably for future expansion. Like the hub, there are two RJ45 ethernet jacks - one to connect to the "internet", and the second to connect to one's home network. There are also two RJ11 phone jacks. One to connect to your existing landline, should you have one, and decide to integrate the landline and Telo. The other is to connect to your phone.
The setup instructions are simple. While it is recommended that the Telo be connected directly to your cable/dsl/wimax modem (i.e. before your router), it works equally well after the router. We chose to connect the Telo to the router rather than the modem.
We were treated to a red & blue patriotic light show for about 20 minutes when the Telo was first plugged in, while it apparently downloaded firmware/software updates. I was a little puzzled by this, but presumably there have been updates from the release date (October 1) to our purchase date (October 3), or the first set of units were shipped without the latest firmware/software on them. In either event, there has been a second firmware/software update since then, so clearly Ooma are keen to improve Telo as feedback/complaints from early adopters rolls in.
Unlike the Hub, the Telo doesn't support the Scout. But this doesn't mean the Telo cannot provide a dial tone at other phone jacks in your house. For this, simply connect a splitter to the phone jack in the Telo, plug one line into the telephone adjacent to the Telo, and the second into the nearest wall jack. If the phone wiring in your house is intact, you should be able to connect a standard wired phone to any other phone jack. The Ooma Hub also supports this feature, which isn't readily documented in Ooma's product literature.
The Telo and Hub are indistinguishable in every aspect of call quality. Off course the Telo supports up to four DECT 6.0 handsets, and Telo to Telo calls will offer HD voice. The Telo will also support Bluetooth, and cell-phone integration. Although these features will be available in future firmware/software updates.
There are differences in the level and cost of service that I have described below.
For current Ooma Hub owners:
Ooma Core includes 5000 minutes a month, voicemail and caller-id and is free of regulatory fees for the life of the hub.
Ooma Premiere includes a range of additional features, including a second line, 3-way calling, multi-ring, call fowarding and many others. This costs $9.99 a month or $99 a year.
For future Ooma Hub owners:
Ooma Core will include 5000 minutes a month and voicemail. From the second year, it will cost $12/yr to recover regulatory fees.
Ooma Premiere will include enhanced voicemail, and the other premiere features. Ooma Premiere will cost $9.99 a month or $120 a year.
For Ooma Telo:
Ooma core includes 5000 mins/month & voicemail, and $12/yr from the second year on to recover regulatory fees.
Ooma Premiere will include enhanced voicemail, and the other premiere features at $9.99 a month or $120 a year.
For both the Hub and Telo, the cost of Premiere includes either a free handset a year (a $49 value), or a free number port (a $39 value).
This change in pricing strategy has made some claim that Ooma is no longer "free".
Well, it never was, although current Hub owners will not have to spend another dime for the life of their unit.
New Hub & Telo users receive 5000 mins/month and voicemail for the cost of the unit, and have to pay $12/year from the second year onwards to cover regulatory fees.
In my opinion Ooma continues to remain a good value when compared to other VoIP providers, although clearly early Hub adopters received a better deal than Telo users.
I want to note two other things that are common to the Hub and Telo. Our number ports were quick and efficient. And, while customer service can be difficult to reach, there is excellent support available from the Ooma community on Ooma's website forums. The Ooma employees who moderate the forums also provide support in a very timely manner.
Bottom-line, if you have Vonage or Packet8, or have phone bundled in with your cable, strongly consider getting a Telo. You will save money for service that is as good or better. With the Hub, we saw savings with the first six months. With the Telo it will be about 14 months before we start seeing savings.
Quick summary - highly recommended! |
Great Product! Definitely Suggest to Friends
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| Review Date: October 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: K. Neman, Los Angeles, CA |
After Reading all the great reviews on the original Ooma Hub and Scout. I decided to wait until the telo came out. I ordered mine direct from Amazon and opted for overnight shipping and received the product the next day. Installation was a breeze no problems whatsoever. Once you unbox the unit you are instructed to go to the ooma website to activate your product. I chose not to port my own number over right away just in case I didn't like the service. You can opt for a temporary number and you can I always port when you are ready. The setup time is about 30 min because you have to wait for the telo to download all the updates before it becomes active. Depending on your connection speed it can take up to 30 min.
Once setup there is a unique dial tone. Call are very clear. It is definitely as good as a land line or cell phone. I have mine connected to a Panasonic dect 6.0 phones. Works absolutely great. Both incoming and outgoing caller id works great.
I also made an international call to cell phone and it worked great. So far so good. I just started the port process for my number which they say takes 3-4 weeks. I haven't had to call customer service yet so I can't comment on it.
My overall experience is great. The MY OOMA section of the website works great. You can see call logs, check voicemail. pre pay for international service and manage your premier or basic.
A few things. The premier service is 119.99 for the first year which includes either a free port (39.99) or free dect 6.0 phone (49.99). It's at least worth it for the first year my opinion of course. Also after the first year there is a 12.00 per year surcharge. Other than that it's a great product that works well for the money. My phone bill used to be 80$ per month. Now if you calculate over the course of 1 year 30$. The ooma pays for itself in no time and from then on its all cash in your pocket.
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Great product and support. NO HIDDEN "FEES"!
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| Review Date: January 17, 2010 |
| Reviewer: sharpeiboy, |
I buy a lot on Amazon, but rarely have time (or really care) to write reviews, but I feel compelled to let others know how much I love my Ooma Telo. Definitely worth the money.
Once I got my Telo, I applied to have my number ported over from my landline and cut off. That took about two weeks (it was over Christmas and New Year's), but now I'm exclusively Ooma throughout my house.
Here are some points I think are important to make.
1. There are no "hidden" fees as some (suspicious) reviews have suggested. There are some government-regulated taxes that you must pay once a year, but from what I remember, these are about $12 per/YEAR.
2. Porting a number over is a one-time fee of about $39. If you want, you can select a new number from Ooma free of charge.
3. While your number is being ported over, you can still use your Ooma system to make calls, but only from the Ooma base. (You can still use your existing landline service, too.)
4. Once your number has been ported over and your landline shut off, you can use your Ooma device to power all of the phone outlets in your house. At first, I assumed that I'd have to disconnect outside wiring or call my phone company and initially became frustrated - NOT THE CASE. (My wiring required a $2. plug-in splitter - Ooma support helped me figure this out in less than 5 minutes.)
5. You do not need to buy any new phones. As I said above, the Ooma will power your other phone outlets. If you have fairly modern phones, all should work flawlessly.
6. There is an Ooma Premier service available for about $120/year. It includes some great features like being able to have your home phone and cell phone at the same time, forwarding voicemail to email, second line, back-up forwarding (in case your cable connection goes down), etc. There is a free 60-day trial for this service and you can easily opt-out of renewing online at anytime and still enjoy the service for the 60 days.
7. The Ooma device gets plugged directly into your cable modem, then you plug in any routers from your Ooma device. This makes sure your Ooma gets priority with your Internet connection.
8. In general, be careful of sour reviews from people on Amazon who don't even own the product. |
Excellent product and service
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| Review Date: January 31, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Traveling the world, Heading East... |
I have had the Ooma Telo for 5 weeks now, and a Telo Handset for 3 weeks. The Ooma device is great, the service has been very reliable, and I have just begun the process to port my landline number to Ooma. I have also recommended the Ooma Telo to friends and family. I plugged my Panasonic 5-extension DECT 6.0 base station into Ooma, and everything has worked great from day 1.
The only problem I had setting up the device was that when I entered my area code to find an available local phone number, their poorly-designed interface said that none were available. I happen to live in an area where the FCC overlaid an additional area code 10+ years ago to make more numbers available. After 10 minutes on hold and speaking with Ooma, I learned that there were phone numbers available in this other area code. At first, the person said to try back every week or so until the got to my area. So, he didn't really get it, either. Dumb UI on their part created an unnecessary, but temporary roadblock.
With regard to the physical hardware, the power adapter for the Telo device unplugs easily, due to poor design. This is only a problem when setting it up, situating it where you want it and/or moving it. Always hold the power adapter in place where it connects to the device, if you need to move it.
With regard to functionality, I wish a few things were different, the first of which is temporary. That is, while my number is being ported, I wish I could have the Ooma device display that future number with my caller-ID info for outgoing calls. The second issue is more significant, and that is that I forward all voicemail to email, but there is no option to NOT have the voicemail also recorded by the device. So, I get my voicemail through email, then have to listen to voicemail again, at home, because it needs to be deleted. I want an option where I can get voicemail to email without it also going to the device. (You can, and I do, forward the voicemail to multiple addresses/people.) Finally, I wish I could edit the greeting on my computer and upload a WAV file, instead of having to record directly to the device, in order to make it sound more professional (home office). I can see Ooma being useful to small businesses.
The Telo Handset is great in that it allows you to make/receive 2 calls simultaneously. That is, I can originate a call, even if the phone is already in use. I can also use the handset to clear voicemail. I don't, however, care for the sharp bezel of the handset. More significantly, the battery only appears to last for 24 hrs if not in the power cradle.
The economics are fantastic. I plan on paying the $10/mo or $120/yr for premier service because I want (1) simultaneous ring, (2) voicemail to email, and (3) the ability to have 2 virtual lines. Those features are worthwhile to me, and I am eliminating a $45/mo landline. I invested significantly to make this happen, because I chose to switch from copper-DSL to cable for greater bandwith. I bought a cable modem to ensure it would be a DOCSIS 3.0 model, had to buy a wireless router (which was built in to my DSL modem), and bought the Ooma device. But, in the process, I upgraded my home network to allow for wireless printing, and a shared network HD. All told I spent just shy of four hundred fifty for all new hardware. My monthly telecom bills will drop from $108, inclusive of all taxes, for home phone, unlimited domestic long distance and DSL, to $58 for cable internet plus $11 for Ooma (premier plus $1/mo for FCC fees), a savings of $39/mo for more phone features, much better international rates, faster internet, and a better home network. My breakeven point is 11 months, including the investment to upgrade my home network. Beyond that, I will save about $500/yr. Further, I can now play the "special high-speed internet introductory offers" game with ease -- switching between cable and fiber-optic DSL (which will be available to me this month), and stay only for the introductory period, since my phone number will not be tied to either company. I can also choose to keep this phone number should I move across the country.
In short, I'm a happy Ooma customer.
Update 2/23:
I ported my landline phone number. The process took 3 weeks. On the day of the port, my service was interrupted for about an hour, and anyone calling me during that period got a message that my number was disconnected or not in service. This is typical of a landline number port. The old-Co disconnects the phone number and then makes it available to the new-Co, and thus it is unavailable during that time.
Pay attention to the name you put on your account when you first set up Ooma. This will be your Caller-ID info.
On my original review, I commented on the loose power adapter jack. Ooma has apparently recognized this problem, as I found a post on their forum that gives a special email address to contact them for a replacement power supply.
Many reviewers comment that "if your power goes out, you will lose your phone." That's true, but there is an easy solution for those who have frequent power outages: plug your cable/DSL modem, Ooma, router and cordless phone base into a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) which start at about $60. The power demand of these devises is low, compared to a PC/monitor, so they will run for much longer than the rating on the UPS.
I'm still happy with Ooma, and still recommend it to anyone who wants to cut their phone bill and has a good high-speed Internet connection. |
Ditch Vonage
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| Review Date: November 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Michael A. Crosby, Denver |
This is a great product that works every bit as good as my Vonage service which I cancelled after a week of using my Ooma Tele.
Set up was easy and the quality of the service and website is great!
I sometimes need to send a fax and was having a problem when I first tried it. After looking at the website it said to put a *99 as a prefix when faxing and after that I was faxing away with no problems.
UPDATE: 12/11/09
I have now been using OOMA Tele for two months and it is still great. I have recommended it to four friends and they have switched as well and they are also having great results.
One tip if you are cancelling your Vonage number. When I called it was like pulling teeth... on hold... counter offers. Ect. To stall the cancellation process. I finally just said I was terminating because we were cutting expenses and will only be using our cell phones. That seemed to do the trick. So if you want to cancel with no (less) hassles try that!
Doing GOOD OOMA!
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