Ooma Review
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- The Good
- PureVoice™ HD technology
- Ooma is a router, not a phone-to-router adaptor.
- Premier features
- The Bad
- Internet required
- Extra cost for premier features
The sound quality and clarity provided by the Ooma’s PureVoice™ HD technology is unmatched in the home phone VoIP industry. In addition, unlike almost all other home phone VoIP service providers, Ooma’s Telo is a router, not a phone-to-router adaptor which means the features and options available with Ooma are different —and better — than most others in the industry.
- Basic
- $99.99 (one-time price)
- Premium
- $9.99 per month
Pay a one-time charge of $99.99 for the Ooma Telo and use the basic features for free as long as you’d like. Pay an additional $9.99 per month for the premium plan and you get a large number of additional features.
- Features
- Ooma mobile HD app
- Ooma PureVoice™ HD technology
- Caller ID & waiting
- Voicemail
- Free 60-day trial of Ooma Premier
Ooma has two plans: basic and premier. While both plans include the Ooma Telo and PureVoice™ HD, the premier plan includes features like voicemail monitoring — allows you to listen to a message while caller is leaving it in case you want to pickup the call — and a backup number that your calls will be forwarded to in case you do not have power or internet. Other features with the premier plan include Google Voice Extensions which connect you to Google Voice’s Voicemail, Call Presentation, Listen In, and Caller-ID features — all with the press of a button.
- Equipment
- Ooma PureVoice™ HD Telo
Ooma’s PureVoice™ HD Telo is a router, not a phone-to-router adapter. The Telo can be used as the primary router in your house, meaning you can connect your home PC to the Telo’s Wi-Fi as well as your smartphones, handhelds, and mobile devices.
- International Service
- Yes
Ooma’s home phone service has exceptional international rates. Once you purchase the Ooma Telo (the router), you can choose to pay an additional $9.99 for the World Plan if you need to make international phone calls regularly. Pay for the World Plan and you have unlimited minutes to landlines in more than 60 countries and to mobile phones in more than 10 countries for 12 months (one year) free of charge. After the first year or service, the price of the world plan increases, but not significantly. For the second year — and the years following — the price of the World Plan is $17.99 annually.
- Support
- Live chat
- Manuals
- Video tutorials
- FAQ
- Phone
Ooma offers something many VoIP service providers do not: live chat support. In addition, unlike many other VoIP service providers, Ooma has manuals that explain not only setting up the Ooma PureVoice™ HD technology, but manuals for each of the features offered in Ooma’s bundle of packages. Ooma also offers live phone support and video tutorials as well as the standard support platforms: FAQ & email.
Ooma: User Reviews
Ooma: Comments
How Does Ooma Work?
Installation is as simple as most other VoIP services, but there is a difference. While other companies provide their customers with phone-to-router adapters, the Ooma PureVoice™ HD Telo is a router.
Once you decide on the plan you want, Ooma will send you a Ooma PureVoice HD Telo router free of charge. Once it arrives, simply plug your home phone into the Ooma PureVoice HD router, plug your ethernet internet line into the Ooma router, and you have home phone service.
What Makes Ooma Telo Stand Out?
With respect to sound quality, Ooma is in a class all its own. Unaffected by internet congestion, Ooma claims that its service is 30 percent more clear than other VoIP service providers. Ooma PureVoice™ HD technology is a collection of advanced technologies that make it possible to have voice clarity even with poor internet service or cell phone reception.
Because the Ooma HD Voice Telo is a router, that allows for a wide variety of options that other VoIP service providers cannot offer. For one, you can — and should — use the Ooma HD Voice Telo adaptor box to send internet around your house to your PCs, mobile devices and handhelds.
And, because Ooma PureVoice™ HD technology is packaged as a router, you can take advantage of things like advanced voice compression — a feature that reduces bandwidth by 60 percent over standard VoIP technology. Calls through Ooma PureVoice™ HD technology are also encrypted, seriously encrypted. Ooma uses the same encryption technology governments use to protect classified data.
Other features that make Ooma stand out include wire-speed QoS and adaptive redundancy. Both features are unique to Ooma with respect to other VoIP service providers, save a couple of exceptions.
Common Reviews of Ooma Telo
The claims Ooma makes with respect to call quality and clarity are not disputed in most reviews. Ooma call quality is second to none according to the majority of review sites and independent reviewers.
The biggest complaint is the fact that many features offered for free by other VoIP service providers require an Ooma Premier account. In addition, the fact that Ooma Telo does not offer a softphone feature — which allows a person to use their home phone from anywhere in the world while paying local rates (free) — is a major shortcoming for those who travel regularly or live abroad.
Is Ooma Right for Me?
Unlike many VoIP service providers, the highest priority for Ooma is not offering the lowest price. If you are someone who puts call quality above monthly rates, Ooma is for you. While Ooma costs a little more than many of the other VoIP service providers, what they claim to be the case is true: Ooma’s PureVoice™ HD technology make phone calls clear even under the most extreme of conditions.
If you are someone who makes international phone calls regularly or you live in an area with a weak internet signal, both the price of Ooma’s World Plan and the fact that Ooma’s call clarity is unparalleled in the world of VoIP, makes Ooma right for you.
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