OT – Free VOIP over broadband internet

[Clifford]

Is there a way get free phone service (VOIP) using your broadband internet connection ?

Can someone share your experience ?

[spdrun]

If you’re not married to a dedicated VoIP phone, Google Voice works fine.

[an]

I like my OOMA.

[Coronita]

+1 on OOMA. I wish I got OOMA early on, when it was $0 really… I got it after they started to charge you for the taxes….Still, $3/month for calling isn’t bad.

The major drawback of OOMA is if you still use a traditional analog fax machine. It doesn’t work well on it…

Also, if you have an alarm system that still uses a phone line, that won’t work either. The solution to the fax problem is just use internet fax. Teh solution to the alarm problem is to go cellular with the alarm.

[Downtowner]

Google Voice works great. You get a Google Voice number and it never changes no matter if you switch providers or not. You just forward all calls to any cell phone. Also, I travel a lot internationally and it’s absolute free to call back to the US from almost anywhere.

[Clifford]

[quote=AN]I like my OOMA.[/quote]

How long have you been using OOMA ?

[an]

[quote=Clifford][quote=AN]I like my OOMA.[/quote]

How long have you been using OOMA ?[/quote]
Roughly a year.

[plm]

I’ve had OOMA for almost 5 years now. It’s been really reliable and the best part, free!

[Clifford]

Just curious, how much did you pay before switching to OOMA ?

[an]

[quote=Clifford]Just curious, how much did you pay before switching to OOMA ?[/quote]
I was paying $10/month for an extra line on my VZW family plan. I’m actually pondering going back, since call quality was better w/ VZW than OOMA. But I’m not sure if it’s worth the extra cost. OOMA, sometimes, I would answer a call and the other end can’t hear me while I can hear them perfectly. They calling back would fix it, but it does get annoying.

[Clifford]

[quote=AN][quote=Clifford]Just curious, how much did you pay before switching to OOMA ?[/quote]
I was paying $10/month for an extra line on my VZW family plan. I’m actually pondering going back, since call quality was better w/ VZW than OOMA. But I’m not sure if it’s worth the extra cost. OOMA, sometimes, I would answer a call and the other end can’t hear me while I can hear them perfectly. They calling back would fix it, but it does get annoying.[/quote]

I’m currently paying $10/mo too.
I’m not sure if going to OOMA for $3/mo will be worth it.

[FlyerInHi]

what’s wrong with mobile/smart phone for everything?

Maybe you don’t have good cell reception at home?

[Hobie]

I’ve got OBI. 2 lines. About 2 years old. It uses google voice as the carrier. Good call quality 99% of the time. Sometimes get static. Might be related to home internet traffic. Not sure and not enough to warrant a long detective job. I have cable and fast router. Kept same phone numbers as with ATT and save about $50/mo. One time cost to buy OBI $75.

[Coronita]

[quote=Clifford]Just curious, how much did you pay before switching to OOMA ?[/quote]

I switched to OOMA about 3 or 4 years ago. Before then, I had local phone service from AT&T. It was like $18/month for just local calling (no long distance). That was the cheapest I could get the landline service to be, even though I barely used it. It was a no brainer for me.

I paid $30 to port my landline number to OOMA, so I kept the same number.

[Coronita]

[quote=FlyerInHi]what’s wrong with mobile/smart phone for everything?

Maybe you don’t have good cell reception at home?[/quote]

That might be part of it. But also, if you are more than a 1 person household, it’s sometimes convenient to have more than 1 phone across the rooms.

[Author]

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