Ooma Telo Review:
Amazon customers rate the Ooma Telo home phone system highly. It rates 4.5 stars for functionality, 4.5 for value for money, 4.5 for attractiveness, 4.5 for accuracy of description and 4 stars for ease of set up.
At $249.99 ($223.31 from Amazon), the Ooma Telo is a bit pricey. But if you divide the cost of the hardware by whatever your monthly telephone bill is, I think you’ll see that it will pay for itself fairly quickly.
Ooma Telo Savings over Two YearsIt has to be mentioned though that calling the Ooma Telo a “free” telephone service is a slight exaggeration. Actually, as it says on the back of the box:
“There are taxes, regulatory fees and costs of $11.75 per year. We’ll pay your first year, but after that it’s up to you.”
So, even though you are not obligated to pay any recurring fees to Ooma Telo, it is not technically a free phone service. Still, $11.75 a year breaks down to a little less than a dollar a month, so it is virtually free, and certainly much cheaper than other VOIP systems. Vonage, for example, charges a monthly fee of $25.99.
Staying on the subject of money, when you set up your Ooma Telo system, you have the choice of either transferring your existing home phone number to the new system, or picking a new number. If you would prefer to transfer your existing number, there is a one-time charge of $39.99.
You also have the option of signing up for a one-year subscription to Ooma Premier, at a cost of $119.99. If you do, Ooma will waive the $39.99 transfer fee.
Ooma Premier is an optional package of 17 “advanced features” including a bluetooth connection for your cell phone, call screening, call forwarding, voicemail forwarding and three-way conferencing. It is provided free for a 60 day trial period, but costs $9.99 per month after that. Of course, despite the convenience of some of the Ooma Premier features, you may not want to pay $10.00 a month for your “free” home telephone service. If so, be sure to cancel the package before the end of the trial period.
Ooma Telo Set UpThe standard features that Ooma touts are it’s high level of voice quality, ease of set up, and low cost international calling.
As you can see from the diagram above, the set up is straight forward. There are two 8P8C ethernet jacks, one to connect to the internet, and another to connect to your home network. There are also two RJ11 phone jacks, one to connect to your existing landline, should you decide to integrate the landline and Telo, the other to connect to your phone. There is also a USB port so that you can upgrade your Ooma Telo as new software and features are developed in the future.
Ooma Telo Package ContentsInternational calling rates vary, but they’re generally very cheap. To give just a few examples, you can call Afghanistan for $0.49 per minute, New Zealand for $0.039, Turkey for $0.087, The U.K. for $0.028, and Zimbabwe for $0.106.
A couple of other nice features the Ooma Telo has are its sleek design and one touch controls. The touchscreen uses captive sensing technology, so the buttons respond to the very slightest touch.
All in all, the Ooma Telo home phone system is a product that comes highly recommended by its users. It’s a good way to save money by integrating your home phone system with your high speed internet service.
Ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service
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