Ooma tele (new) for $129.99 (+tax) at Costco (in store)

Just purchased an Ooma for $129.99 at Costco. They had an entire palette of them which wasn't there just days ago.

For this price, you get a free local telephone number and calling to anywhere in the US for free. You only have to pay your local taxes, which for me is between $3 and $4 per month (nothing compared to the $40/month plan with Time Warner Cable).

Worth adding:

1. Activation took me a few minutes.

2. They let you choose a local phone number from a long list (917, 347, 646, 718 area codes in NYC for example).

3. As a new customer, they give you two free months of their Premiere service which includes too many features to list here (second phone line, 3-way calling, all sorts call forwarding and screening, community blacklists for unwanted calls, etc., etc.). One "feature" I do like is unlimited calling to Canada which I signed for as my wife has relatives there and calls a lot. Otherwise, even without the Premiere service, the per minute rates are cheap at 1.4 cents/minute to Canada, 2.5 cents/minute to China for example. Premiere is $9.99/month in addition to the taxes mentioned before.

4. Another selling point to getting Premiere: Let's say you want to keep your existing home land number. Ooma charges a one time fee of $40 to port it for you from your existing provider to your Ooma instead. If you sign up for one year's worth of Premiere service ($119.88), they waive the $40 fee.

5. I went ahead and signed up for one year's worth of Premiere and they added it to the end of my free 2 month Premiere service period which is the right thing to do. So for the next 14 months, as a new customer, I am getting my number ported and getting Premiere level service for about $8.60/month out of pocket (plus the $3 to $4 in taxes) mentioned before.

6. I did extensive reviews before getting Ooma and without question this is the company you want to make any commitment to. I've tried Magic Jack and the level of service (both actual phone service, and hellish customer service) should make anyone run away - far, far away from them. Users rave about the phone quality and reliability of Ooma, which at the end of the day is the most important thing.

7. When you connect your Ooma, may I suggest you do it this way:

(Wire from your modem) -----> (Internet Input on Ooma) -----> (Internet Output on Ooma) ----> (Wireless Router)

Reason for allowing Internet line to first feed through Ooma: Reliability and quality of phone connection. It has technology that will prioritize the packets of your phone calls so that if you're in the middle of downloads or P2P sharing, in this configuration Ooma will ensure a smooth connection. You can hook it up directly to your router instead, or via Wifi or other ways, but the above connection is the preferred method.

Anyway, for my family this solution makes the most sense. I will pay for the startup cost in just three months. Thereafter, I will be saving at least $26/month going forward.

Side note: For my family, this is part of our effort to cut ties with the local cable company and go Internet only. But that's another story for another day.

Good luck to you!

- Frank