Ooma Telo VoIP Home Phone System (New) $85.97 at Sears

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

Note:

• Ooma didn't charge monthly fee but they charge tax (include expenses to collect the taxes). It is as high as $100+ a year. Look up the amount you'll pay monthly here: https://go.ooma.com/tax_calculator
  Some examples
  • 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)
  • 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
  • 94526 <-- $3.80 (Cheap as hell)
  • 92154 $3.75
  • 11566 $3.73
  • 30115 - only $3.72 (9/26/2012) increased to $3.76 (10/11/2012), so varies a lot
  • 21093 6.94 a month (10/02/2012) decreased to 3.73 (01/08/2013) (state, county, other, and county utility tax was removed)
• People in Ooma forum indicate once the tax/fee is fully implemented, it should closely match your postpaid cellphone/local landline bill in term of fee/taxes. So check your cellphone/landline bill to see eventually how much fee/taxes you will need to pay if your area hasn't implement all the state/county/city fee/taxes yet.
• Ooma can change their tax/fee without notify the customer. They will just charge your credit card with the new fee. Some Ooma customers were surprised after they check their credit card bill and notice the big increase in monthly fee (from $3.xx to $6.xx after they include the county, city, local taxes/fee.) Again, if you don't pay attention to your credit bill, you may not notice the increase.
• Any change of hardware will lose grandfather plan. Directly from Ooma forum.
  http://www.ooma.com/forums/viewto...XES#p99565
  http://www.ooma.com/forums//viewt...=6&t=14373
  http://www.ooma.com/forums/viewto...=6&t=14918

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

A. They include regulatory compliance fees, 911 service fees, the Federal Universal Service Charge (U.S. customers only) and state or province and local taxes, fees and surcharges.

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

Alternative to Ooma (especially if you need Ooma Premier features)
Vonage works out at $15-$16 a month inc fees/taxes when you sign up at www.getbasictalk.com similar to the ooma premier but you don't have to buy the box.
www.getbasictalk.com
- $9.99 a month for life + tax (rate will not change)
- Unlimited call to U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico
- Free number porting
- Free (Vonage Box) device
- Includes Voicemail, Caller ID, 3-way calling, Call waiting, 911 service and many others
- No activation fee

http://www.itpvoip.com/ - ITP Voip, $9.99/month basic plan include unlimited incoming call and 500 outgoing within US/Canada/Puerto Rico.
- Free Linksys router/phone adapter
- Good international rates
- No annual contract
- include number porting
- Voice to email/Text, Advanced call forwarding (based on Time of Day, etc), Outbound call block, Call recording, advanced white/black list by Time of Day, etc

Some useful information about OBi

• Even though Google Voice don't have E911 support, you can signup for E911 yourself
  Link to How to set-up 911 calling on an OBi device
  http://blog.obihai.com/2011/11/ca...vices.html
  • Cheapest E911 provider is Anveo (at $0.8/month) http://www.anveo.com/service.asp (FREE plan and add E911)
  • If you are switching from POTS to Obi or other voip services, in many states the old phone line will remain active for calling 911. You just leave your phone connected and they disabled outgoing calls at the phone company computers.
  • if you do not want to 'dedicate' a SIP slot for E911, you can use http://www.gv911.com/ - costs $12/year
  • www.smart911.com - Smart911 is a free service that allows citizens across the U.S. to create a Safety Profile for their household that includes any information they want 9-1-1 to have in the event of an emergency. Then, when anyone in that household dials 9-1-1 from a phone associated with their Safety Profile, their profile is immediately displayed to the 9-1-1 call taker providing additional information that can be used to facilitate the proper response to the proper location.
    Can check availability under the About page.
• before you start porting your number to GV, check this first http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial.html
• configuring 'single' stage dialing here - http://www.obitalk.com/forum/inde...pic=1103.0
• cheapest pay-per-minute is by localphone.com at 0.5 cent/minute to US numbers
• MagicJack/Nettalk/Ooma can be connected to the POTS line of this obi110 - look at obitalk forum for more info on this. (in theory these are next best to free GV)
• For people want alternative to GV, here are some good quality and/or low price Voips. Some of those VoIP Services offer phone number in other countries also. Remember this is a standard SIP device so you are not tie to GV and any specific Voip.
  • http://pbxinaflash.com/vitelity/ (Looks like Vitelity quality is gone. Read this thread in DSLReports for discussion about Vitelity quality [broadbandreports.com]
  • http://www.callcentric.com/ <--- many SDers and people in other Voip forum recommend this. Callcentric currently offer FREE NY phone number with free unlimited incoming calls
  • http://www.voip.ms/ <--- many SDers and people in other Voip forum recommend this.
  • flowroute [flowroute.com]
  • http://www.callwithus.com/
  • http://www.future-nine.com/
• Some Voip that provide free incoming call. May want to double check and see if this information is out of date or not.
  • 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)
    - offer low price long distance
    - Internet Fax
    - Global Call Forwarding
    - Voip phone service
  • http://www.localphone.com (cheapest pay-per-minute is by localphone.com at 0.5 cent/minute to US numbers)

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