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Brand | Ooma |
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Model | OOMATELO2 |
Type | Wireless VoIP |
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Dimensions | 3.10" x 8.40" x 10.50" |
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Weight | 2.00 lbs. |
Features | Free U.S.calling (Pay only applicable taxes and fees) Low-cost international calls Bundled Features: Voicemail, caller-ID, call-waiting 911 Alerts Easy setup |
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Date First Available | March 05, 2021 |
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Pros: Easy to setup. Call quality to other OOMA users was exceptional.
Cons: For me, the service has been totally unreliable/inconsistent.
Overall Review: Based on recommendations of friends that are successfully using OOMA service, I purchased a TELO 2 and took delivery in the first week of March 2016. I’ve not posted a review prior to this as I believe a customer should give a company an honest chance to “make things right” when there are problems. Well, if they can’t get it right after close to two months, it’s time to say something. It’s now the end of April and I have yet to have consistent/reliable service. I can dial the same number 5 times and the call “might” go through once. The other times I: 1) get dead silence, 2) get a message that says I’m not allowed to make long distance calls when the number I’m calling is in the same area code as my number, 3) have been joined into other people’s calls. Yes, I could hear both sides of a conversion in a foreign language, 4) get a recorded message that says “one, two, three, four”. Could you imagine having to rely on this if I had to make a 911 call? Forget it!!! I’ve been working with OOMA’s 3rd level Technical Support now for pretty much the whole time that I’ve owned it (I’m a very patient person). But my patience is wearing thin. OOMA has tried replacing the hardware. That didn’t fix it. They’ve made carrier routing changes. That hasn’t fixed it. Then they “suggested” that maybe it’s my network. Well, that is possible except that I also have Vonage service and have never experienced a single problem with it in the 10 years that I’ve had it (no, this is not meant to be a plug for Vonage). I’ve also run specialized tests to look at network characteristics that impact VoIP performance (jitter, packet loss, MOS, etc). All test results indicate that there is no problem with my network or my Internet connection. Seeing as I have a fiber optic connection, I even tried 500Mb Down/100Mb Up bandwidth with no improvement to my OOMA service. As I have indicated countless times to OOMA, I really, REALLY want this to work. The system has some very nice capabilities when you subscribe to their Premier Service. And when I am able to have a call go through without incident, the call quality is generally very good. And, based on my findings, when you call another OOMA user, the quality is amazingly good. What is gnawing at me is the inability to speak with anyone in a Management position. After being as patient as I’ve been, I think I deserve the ability to discuss my experience with a member of their Management Team. Even though I’ve asked, the requests seem to fall on deaf ears. In OOMA’s defense, they’ve recently offered to purchase the hardware back from me and reimburse me for my Premier subscription. While that’s not what I want, I might have to accept it and move back to a landline from the local phone company. And, for those wondering, while Vonage has provided extremely reliable service, I have some reservations over the security of their system. OOMA is not totally secure either, but it appears to be better than Vonage. It is my most sincere hope, if you decided to purchase a Telo, that you have better luck than me.
Pros: Simple to use, no delays during calls, better processor, reasonably priced.
Cons: No dimmer for the lights!! The Telo1 had a feature to dim the display so it doesn't light up the whole room at night... why not the Telo2? The registration process can be a pain if you already have an Ooma account, the easiest way to do this without changing any of your settings is to use their support chat feature.
Overall Review: We had a Telo1 for 2 years & loved it, but experienced constant delays during calls - when you talked, the other person on the phone did not hear what you just said until a few seconds later. The Telo2's stronger processor seems to fix this problem. Even when I talk to my son in Alaska, conversations come across in "real time'.
Pros: - Low monthly bill - Works exactly as advertised - Phone calls are clear - Ability to dial 911
Cons: - Upfront cost is high, but you easily make that back with the low monthly payments.
Pros: inexpensive local and long distance calling decent voice quality good customer support
Cons: voice quality still not as good as landline
Overall Review: I purchased this product over a year ago after debating whether to get it for some time. I was tired of paying around $40 to $50 a month for my phone service which I really didn't use that often as the majority of my calls are on my cell. I did want to keep a home phone service though. My monthly bill with OOMA is now around $5. The voice quality seems fine, but as others have stated not as good as a landline. The major difference I have found is that there is a slight delay, but really not that noticeable. I do have cable internet service and not DSL. The product was easy to setup. I think it took me around 10-15 from unboxing to full installation. I did not port my old number and just decided to take a new one. I even tested sending a fax and that also seems to work. I also needed to call their support line and found them to be very helpful and easy to reach. No long waits. So, all in all I would recommend this product to anyone looking to reduce their monthly phone bill.
Pros: Delivered on time and packaged nicely. It took time for Ooma to port old number but the device got activated with temporary new number. Overall the device is working good and voice quality is good.
Cons: Will definitely recommend others. Please check the Ooma website for the plan.
Pros: Great device clear calls easy setup
Cons: None
Pros: The sound quality is just as good if not better than a land line. Setup and registering only took about eight minutes. All you have to do is plug the internet cable in to the ooma box and your router, and the phone line to the box and your phone, power it on, and it updates automatically. Register the product on their site, choose one of the phone numbers they provide and it will work right out of the box. Port an existing number over for an additional charge, and in two to four weeks, poof no more high land line bills. I did a couple hours looking around on the net before I purchased this, even Consumer Reports gave it good reviews. In two or three months what you save in gitting rid of land line bills will pay for the ooma telo, then the rest is pure savings!
Cons: It is of no falt of thier own, just know if your internet access goes down you will not be able to make calls. So it you have a good connection, and want to stop paying high land line bills this is worth taking a shot.
Pros: - It varies by where you live, but for me the monthly fee will be about $4 for unlimited local and domestic US long distance. - The hardware is nice, very good quality feel to it. - Phone number port completed as scheduled after 12 days and it works. Had to call (e-chat) Ooma support to get my outgoing caller ID set to my ported number. - Seems to be very robust in recovering from disconnects (me or cable guy disconnecting things, messing with router, wires, etc.) A lot of consumer electronics network devices seem to need occasional reboots / power-cylces but the Ooma seems to take care of itself well. I have had Ooma behind one and two routers as well as connected directly to cable modem and my experience has been that if a PC could find its way to the Internet through my network configuration, then Ooma will. - Ooma Support seems responsive and capable though I never hit them with any really hard problems ("Pro" also because I didn't have any really hard problems).
Cons: - Obviously any VOIP or other Internet service will be at the mercy of your Internet connection. Ooma recommends 384Kbps upstream for a quality phone call. I paid for "up to" 2Mbps up and 20Mbps down, and typically achieved (measured by the common utilities) nearly 2Mb up and 5Mb - 10Mb down. The quality for the person on the other end was not always that great. One friend I talk to frequently complained of dropouts and delays, other thought it sounded good. Of course it gets worse if other household devices are competing for bandwidth. I have a pretty high-end router with QoS configured and the results are good but it took a little effort. I have also tried Ooma's recommended configuration with their device in front of the router and managing QoS. My friend said this was the worst sounding test ever. From my end of the line, the other party usually sounds good to great, but better downstream speeds account for this. After a couple weeks of testing I upgraded my ISP plan to 30Mbps down, 5Mbps up so I would have enough bandwidth to do other things while talking on Ooma. Seems to be working well. Call quality seems excellent now. Probably could have lived without the upgrade but Ooma gave me an excuse to do it. I'm listing this as a "Con" since I sort of had to spend money for more bandwidth. Even though I didn't absolutely *have* to, it made it work better. I'm sure others have similar marginal ISPs like mine. - In my opinion, $40 to port your phone number is excessive. - My cable company disconnected my phone service early and when I called they said the ball was in Ooma's court. Ooma said it was the cable company's fault. This finger pointing was not a surprise but was useless and aggravating and my old phone number went nowhere for about 71 hours. My Ooma temp number was functional during this time. - In dealing with my phone number port, Ooma Support seemed to want to get rid of me as quickly as possible regardless of whether the problem was resolved. When using Chat, they clearly did not read what I had typed because they asked for information that I had already provided. This did not give me a good feeling about their support organization, BUT their Support people were ultimately correct and the port was completed as planned.
Overall Review: - Upon Ooma's initial Internet connection, a firmware update is performed automatically. Mine seemed to go through at least two download & reboot cycles and took longer than I expected, over 30 minutes to get Ready status. I had my doubts for a while but I let it do its thing and ultimately it came out working. - They will waive the $40 port fee if you buy 12 months of their Premier service for $10 per month. I do not want to get hooked into that plan because the whole purpose of this change was to save money. Their Premier service does offer some nice features that make it tempting. - If I call myself from my cell phone and talk to myself, noticeable delay is heard, but it doesn't seem too disruptive to real conversations. I have read online that all Ooma's servers are on the west coast and the delay gets worse the farther away you get. I don't know if this is even relevant considering the structure of the Internet, which I know little about. - I suspect Ooma would be great given the right ISP. Mine is notoriously bad, however, I do believe their service meets the fairly modest requirements that Ooma has documented. So far my experience has not been BAD, just not as good as I'd hoped. I think my original ISP bandwidth tier should have been good enough (if the ISP was up to snuff) but after my upgrade at least the additional bandwidth will benefit me in other ways. - At first I wasn't sure if I would keep Ooma but I'm feeling pretty positive about it now. I have never heard a Magic Jack but my preconception, based on ads and other people's past comments lead me to expect performance similar to what the Ooma delivers and I expected Ooma to be as good as a telco landline or the VOIP phone from my cable company. It isn't. I think I am a victim of marketing. I have also been changing routers and other networking devices at the same time, so some additional tweaks may be needed. - It may be a step up from a Magic Jack but it is not as good as a "real" phone company or my ISP's VOIP service. Very close though. For me, I think the small tradeoff will be well worth the savings. - Note: I bought an Ooma refurb unit to save a few bucks and it didn't seem to hurt me any. - If my review sounds a little inconsistent it's because I wrote it over a period of weeks and my opinion gradually became more positive. - If you have a good ISP I would not hesitate to try Ooma. If you hate your ISP as I do, it can still work out OK with a little effort, knock-on-wood. - I would recommend a cell phone as a backup for Ooma as I would with any VOIP phone service, even the one from your ISP.