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

[johnvan]

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

When I bought my "Free" home phone service I paid $199 so I'd still call this a hot deal.

[bobcat99]

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.

Yes, that's not new. Check out the other thread when Ooma was down to $149 at Costco. It's become more of a technical support thread for all the other type of VOIPs. This comparatively is nothing yet.

[portboy]

Was at Richmond Hill Costco and noticed the price of Ooma Telo unit went down to $99.99. I purchased this a few weeks ago @ $150 and already thought it was a good price. got it price adjusted of course. FS BB still selling for $180.

Calls have been very clear so far and i'm only using the lite internet speed with Rogers cable.

Burlington doesn't have it. Anyone see it @ Miss/oak, or dundas? Thx.

[ottb]

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

Cheers.

Thanks. Just signed up with voip.ms and made cheap calls from my two cell phones. Been looking for a cheap long-distance solution for a few weeks and didn't think of voip.ms.

[ayb]

It's good when other posters bring up alternatives. I wouldn't have known about freephoneline if someone didn't mention it on the previous Ooma thread... lol... been with them eversince. Hooked it up to my main phone line in the basement beside the modem and router... all jacks in the house can use it. Setup the QOS to premium so it's never aftected by any heavy internet traffic. Heck, it even works on my alarm system. It's served me well so far and best of all... no monthly fee.

[Punzy]

There were around 30 this morning at Ancaster but there was a lot of interest so might be worthwhile calling it in before making the trip.

[bgrad83]

can you use these services if you have an alarm system in your house that is connected to the telephone line?

[604mike]

Firstly, I never seen the previous threads which transitioned to VoIP.ms and technical talk. For that I appologize and didnt mean to highjack the thread.


Phils,

With respect to VoIP.ms,

The prices I mentioned are consistant with what you were saying. You are right that DID's in Ontario and Quebec are $0.99 on the per minute incomming, however you will see they are $1.99 in other provinces. As far as rates, it is $0.0052 per minute outgoing in Canada, $0.0105 to the USA. I also use the standard routing. The only other expense you could face is Caller ID lookup on a per call basis if that is important to you.

With respect to Cell phone, I have used cSIP in the past but I do like the native VoIP support built into Android Gingerbread and up. I to have this setup on a sub account also. To speak to the rules, I went this way for two main reasons. First is that I do not take incomming VoIP calls on my cellphone. When you do this I find my battery life suffers as it has to maintain ongoing registration, since I am doing this, going with the mentioned incomming ruleset allows me to use my unlimited phone airtime from my my10 national to complete incomming calls to my cell. The outgoing call rules are an option for outgoing calls when useage of data becomes a concern and I am out of WIFI range.

I know some people think that seting up VoIP with these other providers is complicated, however VoIP.ms has a step by step instruction for a significant number of devices on their Wiki page. If you can configure a wireless router, you can configure such a service. Then if you remove your incomming phone line at the point of demarcation on your house, you can plug the ATA into any jack in your house and instantly you have service throughout your house. if you are using DSL, you will need to leave that cable pair connected to the feeder.

Cheers

[dejreg]

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.

Personally I've been using Ooma for about 1 year. No problems at all. I ported my number and just pay the $3.98 /month. Saved myself a bundle of cash since I switched. We make the odd call to the USA to make hotel reservations or call to check stock at stores in Buffalo before trips. They have never charged me extra or asked me to buy minutes. My guess is its so infrequent and limited time they just let it go.

Please explain more. You mean just use a double sided phone line connector plugged into router and wall outlet?

[Ryes]

Does this work if you have a monitored house alarm (as I think the monitoring runs thru phone lines?)

[cannon_fodder]

No need to apologize for hijacking the thread IMO. Is there an RFD thread specific to VoIP.ms? I've been using vbuzzer for years (I hacked 6 vonage ATA's to make it work) and I'm definitely thinking of switching. Sometimes vbuzzer goes down and there is no way to get any answer as to why or when the service will return. It costs a little more than $50 USD/year with no long distance calls included.

This may be the answer but I might need to setup my ATAs differently.

[kanasta]

Does anyone knows if there are any at this price in montreal area? Specific location would be appreciated.

I bought one at $149 online at costco and want my $50 back

[The Kwisatz]

I don't know if the information is accurate, but the official website for Ooma (http://ca.ooma.com/uy) indicate that they sell their product at select Costco locations only and give this map :

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...873d348bbdc16a

So I guess it's sold in Ontario only!

[weedb0y]

Why not freephoneline.ca?

[reachme]

I have the same question, to be specific with ADT/Alarm Force in ontario ?

Does this work if you have a monitored house alarm (as I think the monitoring runs thru phone lines?)