I did not cover exceptions. As long as the account isn’t canceled, you’ll retain the account services even on transferring units. These exceptions require a call to our support folks.

So I suppose I answered my own question.

Check to see if ooma can port your number or find out if they have other local numbers available before you order one.

I am just saying that you can create your own multi-featured VOIP service by getting a cheap VOIP solution and pairing it with a free Google Voice account. It is worth considering.

Christine: All residential unlimited calling plans have nominal limits. That allows the provider to make sure that phones are really being used for residential, not business, use. According to Ooma’s blog, they have never shut down a legitimate residential customer regardless of usage.

Robert: It’s certainly possible Ooma could go under, rendering the hardware worthless. However, I doubt that’ll happen soon. They’ve raised four rounds of venture funding, the most recent being $18.3M in June. If I can just get a couple of years out of them, it’ll still be a huge savings over using AT&T.

I heard somewhere that Ooma was being sold a Costco and some interpret this as a vote of confidence in the company’s future. I don’t.

I found Future-Nine and I like it. Great support, excellent uptime, pretty god features, cheap price… Do I sound like a shill, I hope not, I am just happy and I have tried a few others.

By the way, I use sipgate’s “one” service as a backup. They give you a phone number for free from their pool. Outbound calls will cost you though. But hey, include the opportunity cost of the interest on the $200 for Ooma and you might find that sipgate.com has them beat depending on your usage.

Hello G., ooma doesn’t guarantee that fax will work reliably 100% of the time, however generally it does work. If you want to learn more, try searching for article #261431 on the ooma support site: http://www.ooma.com/support

S. Malone says:
I am able to send and receive faxes with no problems. You have to dial *99 before sending. I think this switches the hub to analog mode. You do nothing different for receiving. I have never tried it, but they (ooma) says that it only works from the hub (scout can not fax).

As silly as it sounds, I feel better with a “landline” phone in reach if something were to happen.

I have converted three other people to OOMA, and haven’t heard anything bad.

Prior to Ooma, we had only cell phones. We got the Ooma because we were bumping up against our monthly minute allotment and used up all our rollover minutes. I figured if the company stayed in business for a year after I purchased, we’d break even (purchased hardware for $240, next level of cell service was $20 extra/month). It’s been an excellent investment for us – we’re so happy we went to prepaid cell phone service earlier this year, saving us approximately $50/month over the old cell phone bill.

I agree that the sustainability of this business model is questionable and that keeps me away from making an upfront investment. Now if you are comparing this to offerings like those from ViaTalk ($200 for 2 years), then you can probably say Ooma is the clear choice. However, if you are comparing this to smaller shops with monthly plans, such as Future-Nine ($7 per month), then the calculations involved in comparing services and likelihood of change in services become difficult.

I have been burned before by VOIP providers changing service plans and terms and totally spoiling the deal. Canceling service and porting the number away from them was a huge hassle. Buyer beware is all I have to say.

I love the eFax as I don’t have to ever have to wait near a fax at work or worry if I missed a fax. I just program it into my fax machine in the header so if someone faxes back to me, it goes to my eFax

1 – Overseas customer service is awful. However, the company is very responsive over Twitter/email, and their USA based service (Tier 3) is superb and extremely personal.

2 – One big reason we bought it is future integration of the Telo handset with Google Voice.

3 – The company depends on breaking even the same way Google Voice does, through what they charge other companies to carry a call.

I am paying for Premier service and have three phone numbers, so I’m subject to recurring charges totaling $160/year. That’s hardly free, but it’s a fraction of what it would cost to have three lines from AT&T, not even considering the cost of long distance. (I have a hub and two scouts, so each number rings on different phones.)

I love the “multiring” feature where I can have my Ooma number simultaneously ring my cell phone. I never give people my cell phone number anymore. They can call my Ooma number, and if I’m home I’ll pick it up there, if not I can pick it up on my cell phone. This saves me on cell phone bills.

The one downside is faxing, which is slow and unreliable. I receive my faxes via a free account at K7.net, so that’s not an issue. I try to send faxes as little as possible. If I had to do it a lot, I would probably pay for an online fax service.

The forums are filled with knowledgeable people – I setup our Ooma to play nicely with the QoS of our router.

Customer service can be a little dicey, but when you finally do reach them a real person answers. Also, if you’re porting your number over, I’d read posts to see how people with different situations handled it.

I feel that ooma will switch to a premium-only subscription service as the hype dies down and they have less money flowing in. That, or they will have to start charging a small monthly fee.

i haven’t heard about the fcc thing either – any info you can pass would be appreciated.

costco is even selling it and they are usually very good about only providing quality products

Are you able to receive incoming faxes?