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VoIP Questions?

Beefnot said:
Does Ooma transcribe voice mails as text messages? That is admittedly a feature thay I get with vonage that my wife and I dont ever want to be without again. We get emails with the voice mail attached as a .wav file and transcribed in the body of the email. I love being able to read my voice mails.
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I don't use their voice mail, so really don't know. However, I know there are third party services which do this. It is a nice feature.
 
Ken555 said:
You might want to look into their annual option for Premier, as I believe it will save you some over the long term, if you paid up front for a year.

I tried their iPhone app when they first released it over a year ago, and it didn't work then, either. I haven't bothered to try it since.
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We are on their monthly premier plan for the $9.99 per month. The yearly plan is $119. At times they offer a special where you can get it for $99 (this is how we covered our first year). For the most part though it is actually a few cents a year cheaper to go month to month. As a Telo owner we now have to pay the monthly taxes and fees. That just started this year as it was being covered till now.

Their iPhone app has worked will till we updated the iOS of the iPod touch to version 5, now it always crashes. Others have reported the same issue, so we hope a fix will be in place before our next vacation when we will be most likely to need it again.
 
Beefnot said:
Does Ooma transcribe voice mails as text messages? That is admittedly a feature thay I get with vonage that my wife and I dont ever want to be without again. We get emails with the voice mail attached as a .wav file and transcribed in the body of the email. I love being able to read my voice mails.
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They do, but I believe their is an additional fee for this service. I believe they have actual humans do the transcribing instead of trying to systematically transcribe the voicemails with voice recognition technology. They split the voice mails up between several different workers to help protect privacy. This results in a better transcribed voicemail from those that use voice recognition technology, but also has additional costs that have to be paid for and are passed on to those that use the service. We do get all of our voicemails in recorded .wav file via e-mail.
 
dioxide45 said:
As a Telo owner we now have to pay the monthly taxes and fees. That just started this year as it was being covered till now.
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Do you mean to say that the original Ooma box didn't require you to pay taxes and fees? I wasn't aware of that. I wonder why it changed...or did Ooma pay it on your behalf (as I'm assuming the govt wanted the revenue regardless who paid). I've only started using Ooma since the Telo was released over two years ago.
 
dioxide45 said:
They do, but I believe their is an additional fee for this service. I believe they have actual humans do the transcribing instead of trying to systematically transcribe the voicemails with voice recognition technology. They split the voice mails up between several different workers to help protect privacy. This results in a better transcribed voicemail from those that use voice recognition technology, but also has additional costs that have to be paid for and are passed on to those that use the service. We do get all of our voicemails in recorded .wav file via e-mail.
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Wow, seriously? That is both hilarious and disconcerting at the same time.
 
gomike said:
get an ooma, cant believe people still pay for vonage when ooma is free
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Free huh?

Let's see:

199.99 for initial service
39.99 to have my number ported
119.99 for premier service to receive the same things I now get with Vonage!


Since I only pay $17 with vonage and it works with my alarm service and they just sent me a new $85 modem for free when my 8yr old one went out, I think I'll stay put.

I must admit the "blacklist" feature of ooma is very tempting but not worth shelling out enough money where it would take me almost two years to break even on the initial outlay. To each their own.
 
Obi 110 free afterpurchase

I was going to buy magicjack but this was back when the only option was to have it plugged into your computer and to have your computer on so I didn't get it. We only use laptops and so our magicjack phone would not work back then unless we were on line. They have a new magicjack plus that plugs into your modem so it works anytime whether your computer is on or not.

I did a little research and instead purchased an Obi 110 from amazon for $50 and have had free phone service for the last 2 years. Free local, free long distance. It uses google voice and hooks up to your internet modem. You pick a local phone number including state, area code, city, and prefix you like best out of 1000's of choices and it is free after that. Free caller ID, free call waiting, free incoming/outgoing, free local, free long distance in the US and Canada, free 3 way calls, free answering machine type recordings, free call forwardig, and a lot of things I don't know how to do.. Google has threatened to start charging 1 cent a minute, but still free. If they ever do charge 1 cent a minut 100 minutes will cost $1. I figure I will be less than $12 a year at 1 cent a minute. The only downside is 911 does not work locally. You need to have police and fire numbers handy. The only other downside we have encountered is if internet goes down you have no phone service.
http://www.amazon.com/OBi110-Service-Bridge-Telephone-Adapter/dp/B0045RMEPI

I purchased wireless phones (which you must have to talk on any land lines) where only one main phone actually has to be plugged into the Obi and the others work off of it. I bought panasonic and have both of our cell phones connected by Blue tooth. When house line (Obi) or cell phones ring we can answer from any panasonic handset. We can have both of us talking at the same time on separate cordless panasonic phones when one of our children call one of our cell phones. We have a the main Panasonic home base in the office plugged into our modem. The other phone in the den plugged into the electric plug in the wall. No land phone line needed. And being cordless I can go anywhere in the house and out in the yard. We have loved it. Works great.

This is the phone system we bought. You can get as many as 8 additional handsets in a package. We got 2 as there is only 2 of us.
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-KX-...9YKA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339174740&sr=8-1
 
Last edited:
timeos2 said:
...It has been great. It even comes with battery backup so if the power goes out - unlike the cable bundle IP solution - it still works!...
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All of the intergrated cable/voice modems I've seen have built in battery backup. Now, if you have an area wide power outage (so any electronics along the cables lines wouldn't have power), or if you using a wireless phone that needs AC power, that would explain no service during a power outage.

Jeff
 
So as you can see you have lots of choices and combinations available. A couple of thoughts based on your original post.

If you don't want to make your cell your primary house # because it's 310, you could change it to the local area code with Verizon.

If you want a more traditional set of phones in the house, but you don't want to spend much money, start with Magic Jack+. The "+" model plugs directly into your internet router and to your existing phone wiring or cordless. As these offerings go it's dirt cheap. I have the original and the "+", using the plus unit for the house and it works great. The only note is you can't use MJ for fax calls or dial-up modems.

If you find you don't like the MJ+, you've not invested a lot and can try one of the other providers.

Also if the only issue is the area code, GET google voice (free!) and use it to be the "local" number you want for the area and have calls to it forward to your cell and any other phones you want to ring when people call it. GV offers a whole host of free features including having it not ring on select phones given the time of day, call screening which you can deactivate, voice to text msg translation, and more.

With a macbook pro I frequently place calls directly from it using GV without needing any other attachments. I just dial and speak into the screen like a speaker phone...it's free and works just about anywhere that has wifi.
 
Bucky said:
119.99 for premier service to receive the same things I now get with Vonage!
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Actually with Ooma you pay $0 to get the same things you get with Vonage. You don't have to carry the Premier service. Also if you buy a year of Premier, they will port your number for free, so you wouldn't include both the $119 and $39 fees in your example. In fact, I think if you buy a year of Premier up front when you first sign up you can get it for $99. So you would only pay the $199 and $99 fees. You can of course find the Telo for $149 these days if you look around. So your initial up front costs are $248 if you opt for Premier.

We considered Magic Jack a couple years ago when we got Ooma, but at that time Magic Jack required you to have the computer on when using it. They seem to have improved on that and are now a better option to Ooma for basic service, but the Premier features are worth the cost to us. We have covered our initial costs from what we were paying AT&T for basic land line service. Ooma also works with 911 service in many areas.
 
Bucky said:
Since I only pay $17 with vonage and it works with my alarm service and they just sent me a new $85 modem for free when my 8yr old one went out, I think I'll stay put.
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I'm curious about your experience with the reliability of using Vonage with your alarm monitoring. Which alarm company do you use? It appears Vonage doesn't recommend this use, though I understand many people do so to save costs of having a land line.

https://support.vonage.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1075/~/home-alarms

Vonage recommends you keep a basic traditional landline or a wireless/cellular connection dedicated to your home alarm system and use Vonage for the rest of your calling needs. Typically, you only need to order basic phone service to minimize the expense of this line.
Click to expand...
 
For our winter home in Sun City West AZ we use Google voice.

I was able to select the 623 area code phone number. When I receive a call on that number it rings to my cell phone where I can pick it up or send it to voice mail. If the number calling is in my contacts I will be told who the call is from. It also sends me emails with the voice mail attached. Another thing I like is that I can log on to my Google voice mail account and block calls as spam from unwanted sources and it does not require internet access at the residence.

It's free and works for us.
 
Update

Thank you all for the good advice. :)

I have mulled things over and being the cheapskate that I am I decided to go with the OBi 100 @ $44.41 on Amazon Prime.

I have had a Google Voice # for along time now and just changed that number over to a 702 area code number tonight and then ordered the OBi to set it up with Google Voice.

I think that I would have liked the Ooma as well, but didn't want the larger out of pocket expense. Also, MagicJack was an option, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on that, since the reviews online are really mixed for it vs the Ooma or OBi.

It should be here Friday, and I will set it up and try it out and let you know how it has worked out for me.

Again, thanks for all your good advice. :wave: Tuggers truly are a very helpful and knowledgeable lot of folks. :whoopie:
 
I've heard good things about the Obi, and am curious about your setup and testing with it. Please post back with an update when you've got it up and running!
 
I realize that the originator has made a decision, but I have a question on one point brought up with OOMA. Several mentioned the pay taxes on the calls on a monthly basis. Who are you paying taxes too? We have had OOMA for 2 1/2 years and have never been asked to pay a tax of any kind. OOMA has worked out great for us. We have moved twice and just unplug it and plug it back in at the next house. All you need is an internet which just about everyone has. And someone asked if OOMA sends a written email to your email address. NO, but they do send a verbal email of the recorded message that was left at home. Only problem with that is we can't get the voice part on our ZOOM tablet. With a laptop it works fine.
 
KCI said:
I realize that the originator has made a decision, but I have a question on one point brought up with OOMA. Several mentioned the pay taxes on the calls on a monthly basis. Who are you paying taxes too? We have had OOMA for 2 1/2 years and have never been asked to pay a tax of any kind. OOMA has worked out great for us. We have moved twice and just unplug it and plug it back in at the next house. All you need is an internet which just about everyone has. And someone asked if OOMA sends a written email to your email address. NO, but they do send a verbal email of the recorded message that was left at home. Only problem with that is we can't get the voice part on our ZOOM tablet. With a laptop it works fine.
Click to expand...

If you have an older Ooma Hub unit then I don't believe there are taxes and fees associated with it's use because of how it was marketed. If you have a newer Telo unit, chances are that at some point in time they will begin charging you taxes and fees. For us this works out to about $3.25 a month. We bought our Telo in May 2010 and didn't start paying the taxes and fees until March 2012. I think they are notifying people based on their anniversary of when they purchased. It is possible that some Telo units are also immune to the taxes and fees. I would suggest checking out the Ooma technical forums on their website for more details.
 
Magic Jack plus is the way to go. I have had the MJ that is linked to the computer for 3 years and recently upgraded to the MJ plus which works with or without the computer.
 
OBi 100 Update

Today I installed the OBi 100.

I had a couple of glitches, but I think they were my fault because the phone wasn't as fully charged as I thought it was. But overall very easy install. I wrote to customer service and they called me on the new OBi installed phone and in just a few minutes things were up and running.

I have made a few calls and received a couple and as of now, I think this is going to be a great way to have free calls in the US & Canada.

OBi, connects through Google Voice seamlessly. So to use it most effectively get a Google Voice #. You can use other VOiP providers, but I get the sense it's really designed to pair best with Google Voice.

People on the other end seem to have better quality than I have on my end, so maybe it's my handset that I got (Panasonic, which usually is pretty good).

As long as Google Voice is free to US & Canada than you can't beat the price, $41 for the OBi 100 on Amazon and another $45 for the Panasonic phone.

Once I learn how to use some of the features etc and if I develop any glitches, I will post again, but as of now, I am pleased.

Thanks again for all the input. :)
 
Thanks for following up, Rick. Seems this might be the new low-cost leader for VoIP (assuming google voice remains at no cost).
 
ricoba said:
Well, just came home and get home to no dial tone! :(

So much for perfect! :eek:
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Yikes, my house is haunted! :eek:

Somehow, and I really don't know how, the phone line disconnected from the OBi phone jack! :confused: :confused: :confused: How this happened, I have no idea, since I didn't move or touch anything. But at least I figured it out and now the phone is up and working again! Go figure :doh:
 
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