VOIP services--PhoneGnome & OOMA

[Nlight95]

I'm searching for a decent VOIP service to replace my current Time-Warner digital phone service. I tried magicJack but didn't care for it at all so I returned it promptly. I don't like having to have my PC on to talk on the phone. I am currently looking at both PhoneGnome and Ooma but I'm finding it hard to get answers to simple questions.

1. Can I use my own answering machine with either one of these services rather than what they provide, which is typically vm messages sent to your e-mail. I've already programmed my Uniden cordless phone system with the phone numbers I need and it provides a host of features like call screening, caller ID/call-waiting that I use on a regular basis.

2. Regarding PhoneGnome: If I make a long distance call within the US (I live in New England) to an individual who is not using PhoneGnome (like my family in OH), is there a fee for that call? In other words, do I have to make sure the other person is using PhoneGnome in order for the call to be free?

 

[Muadib]

I looked at phone gnome before going with Vonage. IIRC, it was 2.1 cents a minute for you to call a landline. If you decide to try it, please postback.

 

[Nlight95]

Originally posted by: Muadib
I looked at phone gnome before going with Vonage. IIRC, it was 2.1 cents a minute for you to call a landline. If you decide to try it, please postback.

I decided on ooma but wanted to wait for Newegg to drop their price on it. Now that I have Ooma set up (which didn't take long--10 min), I can comment on it. Some things I really like about it:

- It is quality equipment. You can easily tell this by the nice box and packaging it comes in to the base and scout units. No cheap junk here. So yes, you pay a high cost up front but at least you're getting decent equipment.

- Easy-to-read manual. Really--no translation needed. It offers easy to understand instructions along with diagrams so you can properly install the device without second guessing. I wish all manuals were this easy to read.

- Unlike magicJack and my cell phone, I don't have to dial the area code first if the phone number is in my area code.

- The ooma Lounge offers lots of customization. You get your typical services like call-waiting, caller ID, and voicemail. But you also have some neat features like the ability to block (blacklist) telephone numbers, and even block anonymous calls that don't provide a caller ID. You can also use what's called "multi-ring" where you have ooma ring an alternate phone in addition to your ooma line. This is nice if you're away from home and want to take calls on a cell phone. You probably have heard that ooma has their own signature dial-tone, and they do. But you have the option to either change it to a different tone (Classic, Harmonic, Galactic, Acoustic) or disable the feature entirely, resorting to a standard dial-tone.

There are some things I believe ooma can do to improve their service.

- Open up the ooma Lounge to non-subscribers so they can find out more about the service before making a purchase. This would have helped me a great deal. You can't visit the Lounge unless you purchase and activate an ooma device.

- Add additional support staff to reduce hold times. While I haven't had to call their support, if I did I wouldn't want to wait as long as what people have reported (some over an hour).

- Expand International calling areas. For example, I live in Maine but ooma does not list a rate to call New Brunswick where I have some friends. I'll have to post a question at the Lounge to see what options I have available to me.



I don't have ooma's premium service. This is sort of a mini-review is based entirely on the basic service. I wish I had this info available to me earlier but whatever reviews I read, they didn't provide it. Hope this helps you. Eventually I'm gonna to post this on Newegg and maybe it'll help answer questions people may have.

 

[Muadib]

Thanks for your post. I was afraid to try Ooma because of the large cash outlay up front, and I heard that their call quality was poor. I also read that they were having cash issues. Do you know if that is still the case?

 

[Nlight95]

Originally posted by: Muadib
Thanks for your post. I was afraid to try Ooma because of the large cash outlay up front, and I heard that their call quality was poor. I also read that they were having cash issues. Do you know if that is still the case?

Overall call quality is good, however I've had calls where my voice sounded tinny to the other person. That's another area I feel ooma could use improvement. I heard a few months ago ooma was having some cash problems but were able to get additional investing and put the money into more advertising. I think it's helping because you can now purchase ooma at quite a few stores whereas before you were quite limited. I hope the service sticks around because it would save me a lot of money. Even if it's around for 5 mos it will have paid for itself.

 

[Muadib]

That's true 5 months, and you're calling for free. That's a huge temptation, but for the life of me, I can't see how they can survive with this business model. If you can, I'd appreciate it if you can give me an update every few months. I'm pretty happy with Vonage, but if you are still happy in 6 months, I think I'll switch.

 

[aphex]

I've had Ooma for about 2 months now and have been very happy.

 

[Nlight95]

I must say that so far I'm happy with Ooma even though I've only had the service for two weeks. If Ooma does well for the next two weeks then I'm going to sell my Ooma Scout on eBay. This will recoup even more of my initial up front cost.

I think most of Ooma's revenues come from its Premier service. It's $100/year or $12.99/month. You can actually try the Premier service free for the first 40 days you own your Ooma product. I don't need any of the additional features of the Premier service (though they would be nice) so I'm sticking with the basic for now.

Here are some strategies Ooma could try. I hope they are listening

There's no avoiding the fact that the up front cost is what drives most people away. Nintendo learned that with their Wii and dropped its entry price--now look at how well it's selling. This is especially important because of the current economic climate.

1. Ooma should first try selling just the Base without the additional Scout--this I think they should do immediately--and drop the price down to no more than $150 ($100 would be much better).

2. They could then go to a subscription-based model for say, $5/month. This would apply only to new customers buying a $100-150 Ooma. This, of course, would require a change in their subsequent advertising. Current basic customers would maintain at least a year's worth of free service. Premier customers would be unaffected.

3. If they want to take a jab at magicJack they could offer mJ users some sort of competitive upgrade. I know of a LOT of unhappy mJ users.

4. Down the road they could entertain different product lines--like selling a small business model with a Scout or two with their Premier service.

5. This one's very important and none of the above won't go far without it: Expand server capacity (currently access is quite slow--and this is on 800KB/sec broadband connection) and open up the Ooma Lounge to ALL people so anyone can post a question. I was almost turned away by the fact that I couldn't post a Q without first purchasing Ooma. Yes, I did search the Lounge and found some info. But depending on what info you're looking for, you may never find an answer. Not all people are techies and proficient in searching a forum (something a LOT of forums could learn by the way, instead of having jerks insult them over it). A Knowledge Base and FAQs are nice but can't replace direct help. I know this because I've worked as a support tech over the past 9 years.


I believe Ooma have several options available to them and with a fairly decent marketing team, it wouldn't be that difficult to implement. I do believe they need to do something as the current business model is not sustainable for a long-term future.

 

[Nlight95]

>Originally posted by: aphex
>I've had Ooma for about 2 months now and have been very happy.


Where were you when I had Qs?

(see op)

 

[DnetMHZ]

Originally posted by: aphex
I've had Ooma for about 2 months now and have been very happy.

Ditto

 

[kmmatney]

So, with Ooma do you still pay your phone company a basic fee? How do you keep your phone number?

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
So, with Ooma do you still pay your phone company a basic fee? How do you keep your phone number?

You have to port your current number over to Ooma, for which they charge $40 unless you pay for the premier subscription, and they say can take up to a month to do.

 

[QueBert]

Everyone seems to love this from the reviews I've read. I really like the look of it, wish they offered it black or titanium though (a possible MOD job for me? lol) I run a small small business, and right now just use a cell phone. Not the best, but it gets the job done. I hate AT&T and didn't want to get into a contract with Vontage. Ooma + Premier sounds about perfect for my needs. As kmmatney asked, since it hooks to the phone jack, there's no need to maintain a line with AT&T? Watching the video on their site it doesn't really explain this. I would thing since it's VOIP it uses the router for the actual service and the phone jack is just to hook up the scout so other phones in other rooms can access the service? Maybe that's a silly question, but I know to keep a phone line live somebody has to pay AT&T something.

No way in hell I'd go with Magic Jack for a business line that needs to be reliable, and AT&T can [insert multiple explicit!] Seems like Ooma might be not around for the long haul. But the investment isn't horrible even if they only make it another year I'd still be saving a bit.

am curious about the Premier service. Also a little off topic, anyone have a recommendation for a cordless phone with Bluetooth. I see a few on Amazon but they're not getting the hottest reviews.

another question, in their TOS it says if you go over 3,000 outbound minutes a month it's their discretion to weather to charge you 1.9 cents a minute or not. But, it says nothing about incoming calls. The majority of my calls are incoming. And there are months where I end up spending over 3,000 minutes on the phone with clients. But 95% would be them calling calling me for support.

I know Ooma really isn't aimed at businesses but I can't find anything similar that is.

 

[pm]

It's off-topic for this, but for what it's worth, I signed up with CallCentric tonight. My current provider, AT&T CallVantage just dumped me.

I happened to have an AT&T PAP2 adapter from when I used to use Vonage (but dropped them due to stability/reliability issues). I unlocked it and hooked it up to CallCentric and the calls sound good and clear. And they have good ratings over at DSLReports (http://www.dslreports.com/gbu ). I have a month to test it out extensively before I need to take it over to Europe to use as my primary US phone line.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: pm
It's off-topic for this, but for what it's worth, I signed up with CallCentric tonight. My current provider, AT&T CallVantage just dumped me.

I happened to have an AT&T PAP2 adapter from when I used to use Vonage (but dropped them due to stability/reliability issues). I unlocked it and hooked it up to CallCentric and the calls sound good and clear. And they have good ratings over at DSLReports (http://www.dslreports.com/gbu ). I have a month to test it out extensively before I need to take it over to Europe to use as my primary US phone line.

I find it a bit funny that both Verizon & at&t have dropped their voip services. What reason did at&t give you?

 

[pm]

Originally posted by: Muadib
I find it a bit funny that both Verizon & at&t have dropped their voip services. What reason did at&t give you?

In a nutshell, they aren't making money doing it.

http://triad.bizjournals.com/t...daily39.html?ana=yfcpc

I believe that the root of the problem is that CallVantage boxes can be connected behind any number of firewalls, routers and other things and on any kind of network and then AT&T is held accountable for the quality of service. So if my Time-Warner cable modem has moderate packet loss, I might not particularly notice that as a user of it for web access (bit sluggish, but could be their webserver) but my AT&T CallVantage box would be pretty much unusable and I would call and blame CallVantage for my problem.

So AT&T and Verizon are merging their VOIP stuff with the rest of their services (U-Verse, FIOS) and they should have better control over it which will reduce their support costs which will improve their profit margins.

That's my guess anyway

I will say that as a user, CallVantage has been wonderful. We've never had any real problem with it. Calls were clear, there was never any downtime, and we were very pleased customers. It was a bit expensive for VOIP - we paid $30 per month - but it was so much cheaper than a residential line for our international calls (we used to pay ~$120 per month for all the itnernational calling) and the reliability was perfect. I would never have switched away. We'd tried Packet8, Lingo and Vonage and CallVantage was the only one with perfect call quality and reliability of those that we tried. I'll miss them. I hope CallCentric works out.

 

[QueBert]

Looking more into Ooma, they have a new one that's supposed to come out sometime mid 09 (soon I hope!) has a 6.0 DECT handset that works as the scout. Looks interesting. I can't find a solid release date, I want Ooma but I might want this Ooma Telo. I hope it's out in the next month or so. If not I'll jump on the original.

Ooma Telo linky