VOIP? Ooma?

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e9999

e9999

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want to get rid of my landline. I do have decent speed cable Internet access.
What about Ooma? Are they still good to deal with? IIRC were rated highly in Consumer Reports. But I hear they may nickel and dime you with fees. Including one to keep your number (I'd want that). Quality of calls and service OK? Faxes out OK? Worth it altogether? I'm paying $35/month now on Verizon and can get an Ooma for $99 so seems like a no-brainer.
 
Do you have a cell phone?

Why would need a VOIP line as well?

When our neice (she lives with us permanently) gets a cell phone I think we will probably ditch the land line.

Off topic, the neice just turned 15 and we are reluctant to let her have a cell phone just yet. She already has enough distractions with facebook and messaging sites etc. We tell her she can have one when she learns to drive. That may be a long time though, the way she is going.
 
way things are going " land line " will be in the past sooner than later .. we use skype embedded in netgear skype ( looking like any regular cordless phone and requiring no PC to work ) phone 10 times compared to our land line ..
 
Yup, I have Ooma. It's a very nice way to have a land line w/o breaking the bank. So far, so good - going over 1.5 years. I switched from Vonage and digging the less than $4 monthly fees (local and federal taxes). I didn't subscribe to the Premier service so it's the basic service with no frills. I'm trying to get away from monthly bills as much as possible. If I can just get rid of that mortgage payment.....

Lots of folks ask me why we have a land line since the cell phones are so prolific these days. Everyone has their own reasons I suppose but here are mine: ability to send/receive faxes, telephone in every room, six year old knows how to use it and can talk to her friends, another backup to mobile phones, could use it for burglar alarm w/o paying for another cell bill, international calling (skype and google talk works too), totally a stand alone device (does not rely on computers, apps, etc).......

Send me your email addy and I'll send you something from Ooma. I think I get some kind of a prize or something if I recommend Ooma to enough folks!
 
I have been using Vonage for my land line since 2005. Price went from $28.74 per month back in 05 to $36.53 as of my last bill. Full service, everything included.

I know many folks that have dropped the land line completely, but we still like the idea of a "house phone". Just old fashioned I guess.
 
jonheld said:
I have been using Vonage for my land line since 2005. Price went from $28.74 per month back in 05 to $36.53 as of my last bill. Full service, everything included.

I know many folks that have dropped the land line completely, but we still like the idea of a "house phone". Just old fashioned I guess.
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I dropped Vonage when the price kept inching upward and I finally had it.
Speaking of old fashion...the kitchen phone still has a wired handset - can't lose that one easily :D
 
We live in a bit of a cell hole...thanks Verizon...so land line is required here.
 
alia176 said:
I dropped Vonage when the price kept inching upward and I finally had it.
Speaking of old fashion...the kitchen phone still has a wired handset - can't lose that one easily :D
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Price has gone up, but it's still less expensive than a Verizon land line. Voice quality is great as well.
 
one thing that had us hang on the landline until now is the notion that in an emergency it might work better than cell (built-in power etc). 911 service too.
But frankly I don't know those to be a fact or very meaningful.
 
Vonage and Oopa takes care of the 911 issue. The user is able to log their address into the 911 database when first signing up with the service. I'm sure other VoIP is probably following suit.
 
Been using Ooma regular service for 1+ years. Works great. $3.73/mo covers monthly taxes and regulatory fees. Land line is necessary for me because cell service is poor in parts of my house. I hooked my old home phone system into the Ooma box, thus giving me pretty much a phone in every room. Caller ID even displays on my television. I originally had some complaints from people that called us that voice quality was poor (incoming sound was always fine on our end, but the outgoing sound sometimes was garbled). But that went away when I upgraded the speed of our internet connection, which I did so that we could stream HD movies. Ooma is a great alternative to paying AT&T for a traditional land line.
 
Trunk Monkey said:
If your power is out, your VOIP is out too, no modem. That's one benefit of an old Ma Bell land line.
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True, but Verizon FIOS has a battery backup and my network has a large UPS on it. Works for the first 12 hours or so.
 
jonheld said:
True, but Verizon FIOS has a battery backup and my network has a large UPS on it. Works for the first 12 hours or so.
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x2. All you need is a UPS, at least to protect for a few hours without power. Now if you live in a rural area and it's hurricane country, then that's another matter. Although I'll bet that Sandy knocked out phone lines the same as she did power lines.
 
I have a generator so I'll have cable for a while, assuming those guys do their part. Not so sure that cable will be in better shape than cell towers if we have a major area wide power outage, though. But I hear the cell guys at least have very good backup systems. Didn't they keep cells on during the big blackouts in NY recently?

I did ask a fire dept guy not too long ago about this and his take was that cell was as robust as landlines. I always assumed that landlines would pretty much keep power no matter what, but don't know that for a fact. And would not be surprised if the landline guys would start pinching pennies now that consumer are going away.


But anyway, for context, I've never seen a blackout here that took down cell service. I don't know about cable.
 
Outages from Sandy were different depending on location. I lost power but never lost FIOS. Some folks lost everything. It depended on what trees fell where and what main feed cables were down.

Cell service never went down, but what used to be 4G became 3G and stayed that way until all repairs were finished. Service was definitely effected and some local towers must have been part of that. My house became a dead spot that never existed before. It's all normal now.

The whole overhead power/cable lines concept is so beyond stupid to me at this point. We spend more and more each year to repair a faulty system. It's way beyond diminished return.

I have a 1500VA UPS on my network/desktops/etc. When I know a storm is coming, everything goes off except the router and switches. It allows me to keep wireless throughout the house and phone for hours.
The Verizon FIOS ONC draws very little and has it's own UPS that is pretty good. It'll last for a good long time. It was the last thing left up after the main UPS was exhausted.

I have a generator now, so I'm better prepared than before. Although, lately it seems we never can be too prepared.
 
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