Ooma Telo VoIP Phone System $124.99 + Shipping

Engadget Review for the Adapter that can be used with this (not included with this purchase)


Consumer Reports (June 2012) rated  Ooma #1 over all other VOIP, Landline & Fiber Optic phone companies.

Looks like Ooma tax/fee recently increase to as high as $8.52+ a month in some area and look like keep increasing.  
It is as high as $100+ a year now and raising.  Note, Ooma still hasn't setup local tax for all cities yet.  As mentioned in Ooma own forum, they are slowly rolling out the local tax/fee in their system.  There are MANY cities in USA and it takes time to set it up.

Some of the more expensive zipcode for taxes and fee are...  Note, Ooma hasn't setup local tax for all cities yet (think about how many cities in US).  With time, many zipcode price will increase to this level.....
60043, $8.31 a month (10/11/2012) increased to $8.52 (12/6/2012)
60603, $7.81 a month (10/11/2012) increased to $8.05 (12/6/2012)
20853, $6.9 a month (back in 9/26/2012)  increased to $6.94 (10/11/2012)
94115/94118, etc <--- $6.59 (9/26/2012), $6.63 (10/11/2012) increased to $6.90 (12/6/2012)
95138/95119/95123, etc <--- $5.51
30115 - only $3.72 (9/26/2012) increased to $3.76 (10/11/2012), so varies a lot

They are becoming landline now in term of fee/taxes increase.   Pretty much can increase anytime without warning.

Q. Aren't those fees mostly federal/state fees/taxes that would be raising any landline by the same amount too?  

A.  They include fee to maintain the server and other expenses to collect and do accounting/calculation for the tax/fee.  I assume including expenses for electricity, CSR to answer phone call related to tax/fee, etc.


Look up the amount you'll pay monthly here: https://go.ooma.com/tax_calculator

If you are adding Premier, Vonage works out cheaper (For NEW customers only). The $9.99 only has $3-$4 a month maximum and includes many features. You also do not have to pay for the box and replacements are $15 of ebay http://lp.vonage.com/basic_1l?LPID=basictalk

What are the advantages/disadvantages to other devices (such as Obi, SPAs with Asterisk, or MJ/NetTalk) that provide VOIP?
(+Obi) - Device is $50, no charge for service since the service is provided over Google Talk.  Three years = $50 if google talk remains free
(+SPA/Asterisk) - Installation is $50 (SPA), you buy a DID/DOD through a competitive service for $5-ish a month. Three years $170.
(+MJ/NetTalk) - first year is less than $70, second year and on is less than $30.  Three years = $130

Note that no VOIP service is as lag free as a landline currently. With OOMA your lag will depend on its servers and your geographic location to them. The lag can be twice that of a cell phone depending on location.

OBi = SIP device which can signup for E911 with Voip provider like Callcentric

For people that need to pay $6+ monthly fee for Ooma, there is really not much justification using $120 Ooma device (that only work with Ooma) over $40~$50 Obi (which work with all SIP Voip providers) unless you don't know how to follow simple instruction to setup Obi and you don't know anyone that can follow instruction to help setup Obi.

Some useful info about Obi:

1) Cheapest E911 provider is Anveo (at $0.8/month)
2) if you do not want to 'dedicate' a SIP slot for E911, you can use http://www.gv911.com/ - costs $12/year
3) before you start porting your number to GV, check this first http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial.html
4) configuring 'single' stage dialing here - http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=1103.0
5) cheapest pay-per-minute is by localphone.com at 0.5 cent/minute to US numbers

For Obi, even if you want something else other than (or in additional to) GV like need to signup for E911, etc, there are so many good quality reasonable price Voip providers that work with Obi.



http://pbxinaflash.com/vitelity/  (Read this thread in DSLReports for discussion about Vitelity quality [broadbandreports.com]
http://www.callcentric.com/  <--- many SDers and other website recommend this.   Callcentric currently offer FREE NY phone number with free unlimited incoming calls
http://www.voip.ms/  <--- many SDers and other websites recommend this
flowroute [flowroute.com]
For free incoming call, you can also use IpKall.  It works with Callcentric to provide free local number in Washington State and free incoming call.
http://www.ipkall.com/
Another service offer free incoming phone number
http://www.sipgate.com/


Here are some of the Voip that offer very low price International Calls
Onesuite and localphone offer a lot of local access number so can use it without Voip device.  Those two also offer international local access number which you can use outside US.  Check their website for more info.
http://www.onesuite.com     (Onesuite has been around for 10+ years and consistently great quality)
http://www.localphone.com

http://www.callwithus.com/
http://www.future-nine.com/

All of those can setup with Obi and other SIP devices.

While for Ooma, there is no resell value for the device itself (because of reactivation fee for used device) but Obi you can easily sell it if you decide you don't want it.

If your Ooma device break after warranty, you will need to pay another $150+ if there is no deal like this.  But OBi and other ATA device is $40 or even cheaper so easily replaceable and you are not stuck with a proprietary device.
      .....>> -- Not true if you buy the Ooma device from Costco, which has no return issues for this type of item