Ooma Telo

Very easy to set up. This device allows you to have a home phone line, like in the old days, plus an answering machine, all through the internet. It connects to your router, or even the modem via an ethernet port. If you have wireless phones in your home or office, you can connect the Ooma Telo to your base station, and all of the connected phones will be able to operate. The quick start guide is very clear, and gives various suggestions for setting up. Everything is easy to do, and the device works well. Transferring an existing phone number to the Ooma Telo is easy to do, though there is a one time service charge for doing it of $39.99. If you sign up for Ooma Premier, this fee is covered. Ooma Primer is $9.99/month plus taxes and fees. Ooma Primer allows calls to your phone to be sent to your mobile device, which is a neat feature. You can also have a second line, and join calls. There are monthly fees associated with using this phone service, which will vary depending where you live. The Ooma web site can calculate these fees by entering your Zip code. They are for: Regulatory Compliance Fee, 911 Service Fee, local Interconnect Recovery Fee, State and local taxes, fees and surcharges, and may amount to roughly $7-8/mo. The Ooma is also an answering machine, allowing calls to be stored, played back, volume control, and you can dial in from distance to listen to your messages. On the back are ports for USB (for an Ooma device), power, two ethernet ports, phone line, and a paging button to page a set of Ooma phones.

I've owned my Ooma Telo Voip device for approximately 18 months. I purchased it for my small home office. I was pleased with its setup, preformence and cost. I did run into a problem when I recently changed my home network, discontinued my home office number and ported my home number over. I could not get my Ooma to connect to my network. I recently purchased an Eero mesh device. Because the Eero router has only 1 outgoing ethernet port, I connected it to an 8 port unmanaged Netgear switch. One of the lines from the 1st switch was connected to a 2nd Netgear switch adjacent to a computer. Devices connected by Wi-Fi were able to network. A desktop computer connected by ethernet cable to the 1st switch did not network. The problem was solved when the 2nd network switch was disconnected from the Eero router. The Ooma device worked. My tech thought that the connection of both switches to the Eero router caused my networking issue even though seperate ethernet cables were used.

So far it seems like a good product though note that continued use is NOT free! If you port over your existing phone number there is a significant charge (ok, so its only once) but then there are monthly 'fees and taxes' which must be paid for all sorts of things (911 service, fed taxes, state taxes, etc...). Not a great amount but I rather wish that the Ooma people had been more upfront in mentioning them. Sound is good to better than good (certainly not HiFi but, hay... its a phone!). Relatively simple to install and once working no continuing issues. Five stars except for the fee failure thing.

After I decided to buy my own cable modem (without telephony) instead of renting one from Comcast, I lost the ability to use VOIP with Comcast, so had to find an alternative. Following the recommendation of a family member, I bought this unit and set it up. So far it has worked very well. The instructions are quite good. It seemed to have a bit of trouble getting an IP address from my router initially, but within 10 minutes after I cycled the unit, the logo turned solid blue on the top and the phone worked fine. I am opting for basic ooma service, so I had to pay $40 to port my landline number from Comcast, but it was worth it to me versus keeping the free number I selected through the ooma website. The website indicates that the transfer will take 3-4 weeks, which is lengthy for something that should be simple by now, but maybe that estimate is way on the cautious side- time will tell. Some considerations: -If you want transfer your phone number, don't disconnect your phone service with the current provider until after the transfer occurs. If you cancel phone service with your current provider, you will not be able to transfer your number- it's out of your control and back in the number pool of your current provider. -ooma won't work with an Ackerman security system, so keep in mind you might have to go with a cell phone-based upgrade to your security system. It's much safer anyway, but it does decrease the monthly savings when switching to ooma. The cell service option will cost $10/month more, but I am still money ahead. Cost comparison: +$10.00 for cell phone upgrade to security system +$ 3.85 for monthly ooma taxes and fees -$ 7.00, no more monthly comcast modem rental charges -$ 32.00, no more Comcast phone service Net savings is about $25 per month; I spent $160 on the ooma and $150 on Netgear modem plus $40 on the port ($350), so I will break even in about 14 months. That's OK with me, and worth it to break away from having to use a substandard Comcast modem while getting an upgrade to our security system at the same time. Update- as soon as the phone number ported to Ooma, Comcast automatically raised my monthly subscription rate to internet and cable to $200, so I had to call them and go through the process of getting the monthly rate down. Comcast subscribers- be prepared. AUGUST 25 2014 update- No problems with the phone except when I continually lost my internet connection. Off topic, but we just switched to ATT Uverse service and at least in my locale the internet stability has been much better (no drops whatsoever in more than a week). The final straw was when I was charged $60 for a Comcast service visit when the tech could not find anything wrong with the signal strength, so he informed me he had to indicate that my equipment was to blame. I didn't understand that meant a $60 charge. I know other people have the exact opposite experience, but if you are dissatisfied with your current Comcast service, it's worth a look at ATT Uverse. OCTOBER 2014 update. Ooma box has worked flawlessly, but discovered that the company automatically signs you up for a higher tier of features that you get free for a month, but then your credit card begins to be charged at a higher rate. Just be aware that you will have to call and stop higher tier service if you don't want those features. MAY 2015: I haven't had any problems with the unit except very rare internet connection drops. BTW, it took me 6 months to get the $90 Comcast owed me back from them- after three calls and hours on the phone, plus a FAX to their "Consumer Service VP" or whatever their title is, I finally got the check. I have to say that Comcast's very poor customer service reputation is well deserved in my personal experience.

I have been paying for a VOIP landline through my cable provider for years at well over $30/month, including fees. We keep our landline because we are old-fashioned, I guess. Both of us have cellphones, but it’s hard to break old habits. So, when we decided to quit cable, Ooma became a great possibility, and I am really impressed with the whole Ooma process. I got the basic Ooma Telo, followed all the instructions, and had it up and running on my wifi at home in about 30 minutes. I learned several things along the way. First, I should say that we wanted to keep our old landline number, so we wanted to use the Ooma porting process. It costs around $40 to do this, and it took less than 10 days. It can all be done when you are setting up your Ooma Telo. Second, before you set up your Telo, look on the bottom of the unit and copy down the activation code. You will need it and your credit card information to start the activation process. Now, you can set up Ooma Telo on line or through the Ooma Set-up app. I used the on line set-up. Third, when you set up your Telo, you will need to pick an available phone number, even if you want to port your old phone number to the Telo. Make a note of your new number (you can keep it if you want to, but, if you are planning to port your old number to the Telo, you still need to new number you chose as your temporary account ID on my.Ooma.com). Once you are able to port your old number, you can make your old number replace that new number automatically (Ooma gives you that option, and it works!). Once you complete the initial setup on line, you connect your Telo to your wifi router via the provided ethernet cable, being careful to use the proper ethernet port on the back of the Telo, and then power up your Telo with the provided power supply and plug. Ooma will let you know that your account is now active. If you are NOT porting your old number to the Telo, then you can go ahead and plug in your phone to the Telo. Don’t plug in your phone to the Telo if you are porting your old number. Wait until Ooma and your old VOIP provider let you know that your porting is complete (you can still use your phone until then). Once you get that confirmation, then you simply plug your phone's cord into the back of the Telo, and you are all set. My monthly fees for the landline are now around $6.50, so I’m saving about $25 per month. The Ooma Telo will pay for itself and pay for the porting fee in about 4 or 5 months. Finally, the call quality is as.good or better than my old VOIP service, and I really can’t tell the difference in the way the phone works at all. Caller ID works just the same, voice mail, too. And you can easily keep track of your calls on my.Ooma.com. This is a really great system, and well worth the money. Ooma's customer support is first-rate, too!

My original, 4-star review appears below. I am changing it to 1-star because: 1. Ooma apparently pushes updates to your Telo, and there is NO WAY to know when they are doing that. The updates are scheduled randomly (according to the L2 Tech Benna I spoke with on July 27, 2018 at 4:37pm). And they can take HOURS! I would expect Ooma to not take me offline at a random time (just as people were rightfully upset that Microsoft Updates sometimes took their computer down while they were sitting there working on it, but at least they knew it was rebooting). 2. If taking your phones offline for hours was not bad enough, the update BRICKED my Telo. By bricked I mean no calls come in, no calls go out. According to the L2 Tech (Berlin,? Not sure I heard her name correctly) and then her supervisor, Glen (I spent about 30 minutes with them on the phone just now), I have to wait until Monday before their Engineers will even look at this problem, with no working phone system until they figure things out!! Sure, I could use the Ooma iOS app (and I am), but if that was the solution I desired, I'd just use Google Voice and forward calls to my mobile. That is NOT why I am paying Ooma $15 per month (with the majority of that prepaid on an annual basis for the premier plan). Ooma's reps keep telling me the Telo isn't bricked, it's just rebooting.... endlessly. In this sense, I still view it as bricked (it is unusable for its intended purpose, and no amount of rebooting fixes it). 3. The coup de gras: Not only will Ooma do NOTHING until their Engineering team figures this out, even if I buy another Telo and have it delivered today, they WILL NOT transfer my phone number over. Why? Because that could change the bug and they want to solve it. Commendable in some way, but that puts me in an INDEFINITE HOLD waiting for my phone to work until they can debug things. I offered to give them my old Telo for debugging on their premises (send me a shipping box, with prepaid return label), but still the answer is no. When you brick someone's system with an update (ESPECIALLY one they have no control over installing), I would hope that the company would do right by their customer and not only facilitate my request, but credit my account for the cost of the new Telo (since their actions bricked it). What would you think if Google or Apple pushed an update to your phone that installed without your ok (or even WITH your ok on a supported device) and it simply rebooted endlessly? My guess is you'd be pretty pissed... I know I am. Ooma's approach is just not acceptable. They have my money. They bricked my Telo. They will do nothing more until their engineers come in on Monday (system has been down since Friday afternoon), and even then they said they need to wait for the engineers to solve it. I might want a working system sooner, but they will not take any action that might get me there . To think I was considering Ooma's request at one point to be a Brand Ambassador... I'll become an Ambassador now, but will be talking about their terrible service instead! * UPDATE * With no help from Ooma, I started fiddling with settings. When I turned off the DECT radio, things worked again... for a little while (1 -2 weeks). Then it died again. I got Ooma Tech Support back on the phone and they sent me to another L2 tech. After examining my configuration, he asked me to change the INTERNET CONNECTION TYPE from Auto to DHCP. Things have been working fine since then. Wow, at least I found one L2 tech who could help me! =========== Original Review ======================== The out-of-the-box setup experience could use improvement, but once configured, this works like a champ! OotB: I followed all of the quick setup instructions. There were two issues: (1) MAC Address as printed on the bottom of the unit was WRONG (off by 1 in the last couplet). How do I know this? I checked the MAC address in my DHCP tables. I created QoS rules to give Ooma the highest priority on my network, and had to change that rule to match the actual MAC address. This is not a huge problem, but there is really no excuse for printing the wrong MAC address on the label. (2) After connecting everything and then plugging in the power, the Ooma box flashed red for a few minutes. Then switched to flashing alternately red & purple. These two conditions are not covered in the Quick Setup info. I used Chat to talk to an Ooma support person who told me that was fine. Again, there is no excuse for not documenting this, After I got past #2, the Ooma Telo has been rock solid (past week). I will update this review if that changes. A request to Ooma: PLEASE provide an online User's Manual in PDF format that we can download. You did that for the old Ooma Hub; why not for the new Telo???

My main reason in moving from POTS (Plain Old (Landline) Telephone System) to Ooma (VoIP) is to BLOCK those annoying nuisance calls. With this in mind I intended from the start to get the Premier service over the Basic. I knew right up front what I was doing. This whole topic was made very clear to me by the Ooma website. As to the website, it was very helpful in explaining how I could integrate Ooma into my situation and to explain what I needed to get it started. This took hours, not minutes, because this was all so new to me. But, after I had spent the time, all the necessary information was right there on the website. When the product arrived all the time spent beforehand was well worth it. It made installation and set up go quite smoothly. I've only had Ooma a few days and it is not yet totally integrated into what will be my former landline system. I am in the process of having my landline number ported. In the meantime I purchase the HD2 handset so I could begin to use Ooma and to use as my personal phone when my present cordless phones are connected. Activation went very smoothly with one hiccup. The instructions that came with the Telo were very easy to follow. The hiccup came as I went thru the online activation process. It would not accept my credit card (part of the activation process). I tried several times with different cards. I ended the process thinking that acivation was not successful. I called Ooma Support and they were very patient and helpful. It turned out that activation was succesful, but the credit card was not showing. They stayed with me while I repeated the activation process on another browser. This did not work. They then told me how to log into my account online and insert the credit card information. Everything was a success and I was very happy with Customer Service. I later went thru the online process to Port my landline phone number. When completed, I wasn't sure that I had done this right. I used the online Chat service and they confirmed that they did not get this order which was all I wanted to know. I thought I knew what I did wrong and repeated the process online. This time it was successful and I got immediate confirmation. Ooma tells you that it could take 3-4 weeks for the number to be ported. It is already scheduled to be done in a week. I decided to use Linx to connect my present cordless phone system to Ooma. Setting up Linx was very easy and went according to the enclosed intructions. I haven't connected my cordless phones yet. I'm waiting till my landline phone number is ported. I purchased the HD2 handset to use to get used to Ooma while awaiting the number port. I also want it as a private phone for my own use. I don't exactly like the feel of the buttons, but it seems fine. I did have a problem where the batteries went dead after a few days. I called Customer Service. They thought the problem was with the batteries that came with the unit. They quickly offered to send a whole new handset (for free exchange), but I opted to just buy a new set of name brand AA rechargable batteries for $10. This was the problem. Again, good Customer Service._______NOTE: Since I wrote this I found that the new batteries also weren't charging. I accidently solved this by unplugging the charging cradle from the PLUG end (it didn't help to unplug from the cradle end). So basically I am totally pleased. Everything is working fine. Setup was very easy. The phone sound quality is fine. The whole process of going from POTS to Ooma has been painless. Customer Service was great. My one bit of advise is to put in the time studying what needs to be done to get the system up and working before you open any boxes. Depending on your understanding it could take hours. The website has everything you'll need to know. That time spent is well worth it. ADDED NOTE: The porting process went very smoothly. It took 6 days. I then set up my home phone system using both Ooma HD2 handsets and my original cordless system that is probably 15+ years old. I used Linx to hook up my non-Ooma cordless phones. I've actually liked the way with which the Ooma phones work in my setup that I've added more of these than I had originally intended. I also used Linx to attach a Medical Alert system. This was all so easy to do and worked out extremely well. I ended up with a few very minor things that I couldn't figure out. In these cases Ooma Support by phone and chat resolved these very quickly. Now I'm just waiting for the silence of blocked nusance calls. In summary, starting with deciding on which VoIP to go with right thru to getting everything set up, I am very impressed with Ooma. As a bonus I got a great customer service rep at my original landline carrier and she made sure my other internet services, minus the phone, stayed in tact and that the full cost of what I was paying for the phone was removed. IMPORTANT: If I hadn't contacted my original landline provider's customer service I would only have saved $5 off the cost of the bundled phone. The customer service agent advised me to move internet and tv to a different bundle and I thus saved $30. She also set it up as an extension of the original contract so that I wouldn't have to pay a termination fee on the original bundled services. Update: Have had Ooma for about 2 weeks now and NO MORE NUISANCE CALLS, which was my main reason for making this change.

Super easy to set up. Top notch voice quality. Versatile options. Love the multi ring and Android app. Only thing it does not have is text capability. But I get it. It's not trying to be something it's not. Very happy with my purchase.

We have used Ooma for more than ten years and love it. Our daughter moved to a new city and wanted an inexpensive phone system. Based on our experience, we suggested Ooma and she agreed. We purchased the Ooma Telo for her as a gift and then installed it on moving day.

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Ooma est imbattable pour le prix, ça fonctionne plutôt bien, par contre j'ai quelquefois un retour de son sur la ligne, comme un écho, mais ce n'est pas régulier, pas assez pour retourner payer plus cher. J'ai le modèle telo (avec fils), il fonctionne bien avec mes téléphones Panasonic.

So TLDR in advance for anyone who wants to buy these, unless you are a US customer don't bother this company doesn't cater to you. ------- Original review according to the features i've seen this thing can do everything I need it to do. I would have been gloriously happy if everything had gone according to plan but unfortunately I am one of the unlucky ones that didn't have a smooth setup experience. I am an experienced telecom worker. I work for a major company doing internet/phone/tv installation and I have 6 years experience dealing these types of services. Forewarning to all those seeking to purchase one of these units, you may be sent a refurbished unit. I was sent a refurbished unit even though it was labelled as NEW, one of the security seals was broken (not the main one) after spending 2 days on and off with customer service reps with thick accents I was eventually told by technical support that they cannot fix the registration problem because my unit is a US unit, apparently they send different units to the US and to Canada. Mine was registered to an american (probably cancelled) account. So I asked a simple question, if the previous owner of this box has cancelled his account why not just remove this device from its registration so I can register it. Apparently this is not possible and they have no ability to do it no matter how much sense it makes, instead they tried to force my information into an old account to make it work because they don't have the ability to manually fix this problem. They then told me they could not do it because you can't register an american unit to a canadian account. Why? I have no idea probably a quirk with their poorly implemented registration system. so buyer beware you cannot guarantee that your ooma unit is not refurbished, if it is you may have to do what I did and play return tag with amazon until you get a unit that is new and not refurbished. On the plus side the call quality with customer support was excellent. I had no issues with phone drop outs or weirdness caused by slow internet apparently my internet connection is adequate for good voip service. Apparently you can call their call centre from the ooma unit without being registered properly. Neat. I'm not giving up on the service yet but I will probably update this review further if i continue getting bad units. ------------- UPDATE *5 Days later* Okay i'm throwing in the towel. I just got my replacement Ooma box, just like the first one this one had one of its security seals broken but unlike the first one this one wasn't still attached to an old account. However when I tried to register it, I was told it needed a US area code to complete registration and I'm officially fed up. This service is awful and the company that provides it has no idea what they are doing. They have region locked their hardware and give no indication on the shipping box or on the equipment that this is an issue, a requirement, or any indication of what region the equipment is for. I would fault Amazon for storing US based equipment but I'm sure that if they knew there was a difference they wouldn't send US ooma equipment to Canada

Remplacer Bell. Mais j'ai dû retourner l'item car j'ai reçu un modèle pour les USA, incompatible pour le Canada. Je ne suis pas le premier à qui ça arrive (voir les commentaires laissés par d'autres). Comme je ne suis pas patient je l'ai retourné et en ai acheté un chez Bureau en gros. Assez facile sauf pour le tra sfert de mon ancien # de téléphone.