[Elect] COSTCO: OOMA TELO free home phone service now $99.99

[beegoi]

The ooma unit sold in the store does not include the wireless adapter

[densil_lopez]

None in Vaughan costco...

[Genblue]

Does anyone have an item number?

I'm going to give it a try. Reviews seem to be pretty good and I'm tired of paying outrageous fees to Cogeco!

[galantgtz99]

how is this compare to freephoneline.ca?? i paid $50 for the config file, $25 for the number porting, $30 for a ata device..... $105+tax all in... no more monthly charges, i kept my number, quality has been good so far. I don't use much long distance so $20 credit would last me over a year....
Is this one better in quality than freephoneline.ca??

[bbcd]

item number is 575100

[bridonca]

how is this compare to freephoneline.ca?? i paid $50 for the config file, $25 for the number porting, $30 for a ata device..... $105+tax all in... no more monthly charges, i kept my number, quality has been good so far. I don't use much long distance so $20 credit would last me over a year....
Is this one better in quality than freephoneline.ca??

I do believe OOMA uses a proprietary technology to work better on crappier internet connections. Magicjack and freephoneline rely on a good internet connection to have good VOIP. If you have a good internet connection, you will not see much improvement with OOMA.

[604mike]

Some of you may already be familiar with voip.ms service, but as a customer for a couple years along with several friends of mine, I think they provide anothre option for your money. All you need to do is pick up a VoIP ATA which well for about $40, then fund an account at VoIP.ms They allow you to port your existing number in, or can provide you one. A Canadian phone number for incomming calls is available under two plans, one is $5.95 USD a month for 2500 incomming minutes, the second is $1.99 USD a month for pay per use service @ 0.0149 cents per minute for incomming calls. If you dont require incomming calls you are not required to setup a phone number, outgoing calls anywhere in canada does not have a monthly fee, it is merely pay per use. Calls to most cities in Canada cost only $0.0052 (half a cent per minute), to the USA is $0.0105 per minute. Other international rates are very competitive. I believe billing is in 6 second increments.

Even to supplement an existing landline people may have this is an attractive option for outgoing long distance in itself. Their service has lots of options, some of which could have a thread of their own. In my case I have a couple things setup. Since my andriod Galaxy Nexus has native support for VoIP built into its phone application, I have my phone registered to make some long distance calls through the service both over WIFI and over my cellular data plan.

The other thing I setup is adding my voip.ms number to my my10 national list on my cell contract. I have a caller id filter setup on voip.ms which presents me with the option to call through the service without encuring any airtime by phoning my voip.ms number from my cell phone.

A more advanced rule I setup was one where when the house (voip.ms line) is called it rings both the house and my cell phone. When this happens, the callers caller id is sent to my cell, however, after 3 rings the system uses a fall over rule, which is on another simulring, however this second rule forces caller id to be that of my voip.ms line. The result is that I see the callers phone number when they initially call, however after the third ring, the caller id number on my cellphone changes to my voip.ms number which on my my10 list so I do not encure any airtime on my phone. Regular VoIP.ms per minute rates apply, but a cent per minute is alot better than 45 cents a minute for airtime overages.

Im sure alot of RFD'er are already familiar with this service, but figured I would mention it for those who dont.

Cheers.

[Phils]

Some of you may already be familiar with voip.ms service, but as a customer for a couple years along with several friends of mine, I think they provide anothre option for your money. All you need to do is pick up a VoIP ATA which well for about $40, then fund an account at VoIP.ms They allow you to port your existing number in, or can provide you one. A Canadian phone number for incomming calls is available under two plans, one is $5.95 USD a month for 2500 incomming minutes, the second is $1.99 USD a month for pay per use service @ 0.0149 cents per minute for incomming calls. If you dont require incomming calls you are not required to setup a phone number, outgoing calls anywhere in canada does not have a monthly fee, it is merely pay per use. Calls to most cities in Canada cost only $0.0052 (half a cent per minute), to the USA is $0.0105 per minute. Other international rates are very competitive. I believe billing is in 6 second increments.

Even to supplement an existing landline people may have this is an attractive option for outgoing long distance in itself. Their service has lots of options, some of which could have a thread of their own. In my case I have a couple things setup. Since my andriod Galaxy Nexus has native support for VoIP built into its phone application, I have my phone registered to make some long distance calls through the service both over WIFI and over my cellular data plan.

A more advanced rule I setup was one where when the house (voip.ms line) is called it rings both the house and my cell phone. When this happens, the callers caller id is sent to my cell, however, after 3 rings the system uses a fall over rule, which is on another simulring, however this second rule forces caller id to be that of my voip.ms line. The result is that I see the callers phone number when they initially call, however after the third ring, the caller id number on my cellphone changes to my voip.ms number which on my my10 list so I do not encure any airtime on my phone. Regular VoIP.ms per minute rates apply, but a cent per minute is alot better than 45 cents a minute for airtime overages.

Im sure alot of RFD'er are already familiar with this service, but figured I would mention it for those who dont.

Cheers.

Mike,

I feel like we (you and I) may be hijacking the thread but I thought I'd just make a quick comment. OP, if you'd rather we stick to the Ooma, I apologize and I'll stop.

I've been with VOIP.MS for about 2 1/2 years. Those prices you mention seem high to me. Rather than $1.99, I've been charged $0.99 per month and $0.01 per minute incoming and $0.0052 outgoing. I use the standard rather than premium service and it works great.

As far as my cell phone is concerned, I setup a subaccount for it on VOIP.MS and just use CSIPSimple to set up VOIP.MS on my Android smartphone. It makes everything including setting up fall over rules much less complicated. Given that you have a setup that does the same thing, why would you need the rules?

[Busiu]

I've been using the wifi version of Ooma Telo that I got from Costco.ca for a few weeks now. I highly recommend it. I'm in the process of porting my old number now ($39.99) from Cogeco. I can't distinguish a difference in call quality from my current Cogeco phone service. When you place calls in Canada, there is no need dial 1+areacode, everything is local.

The most convenient part is that you connect your Ooma box to any telephone cable outlet in your house that is properly wired and you're set. All you existing land line phones will work.

[AMD]

I had to add my comment here.

Why not use voip.ms? No upfront fee (you buy your own ATA), very reliable and a Canadian company.

Been with them for some time now and it works great. Only costs us a few dollars per month.

[TurboTronix]

Is this available at the Montreal Costco?

[Chr1s]

I need at least 5000 local minutes per month for family. What VOIP provider would be the best option?

I've read Ooma gives 5000 minutes, and FreePhoneLine 3000 minutes. I think VOIP.ms would be the more expensive option in my case. What happens if you go over talk minutes with Ooma or any of the voip providers, do you get cut off?

Thanks.

[aquariaguy]

Can you set this number up as a fax? Does that work? I'd love to have long distance for faxes.

[johnvan]

Can you set this number up as a fax? Does that work? I'd love to have long distance for faxes.

Apparently faxing works but I've never tried.

Whenever Ooma is mentioned it ends up being a thread about voip.ms. The nice thing about Ooma is there is no configuration and buying it at Costco means no risk. Grab one for $100, bring it home, plug it in, register online, start making calls. Easy.
It's only $4 a month and you get some pretty nice features on the basic plan, call waiting, call display, access to voicemail via the web and they have a nice mobile version of the website which works great on smartphones. Another neat feature is a text or email when someone at home calls 911. You'll want to add a few bucks to your account to make U.S. or international calls, it doesn't bill automatically to your credit card. I threw $10 on six months ago and I still have $9.87 left, I rarely call outside Canada.
I keep my Ooma unit near my router hidden away and use Panasonic cordless phones with it and am able to see when I have a voicemail because the phones flash, and I can listen to my voicemails form the cordless phone. There is no need to have the Ooma base unit in an easy to access location.

[hagbard]

"Free home phone service" for $99? My brain hurts.