OOMA Telo phone service? Opinions?

I've been using it since I moved into the current house - about 6.5 years. Works great as noted above. Since it is IP based, it is set-up to re-route calls to my cell phone in the event my internet goes down. It is also set-up to send me an email with a voicemail attached if anyone leaves me a message at home (so I can be anywhere and playback the message). I have the deluxe service (they charge a lumpsum once a year for that and the regular Ooma service is just taxes/month) which has a couple of more features but isn't necessary if someone just wants to call in the US.
 
Ooma Telo sounds awesome!

So far so good.

Once Verizon comes to fix my Fios connection/phone, I'll port my mom's phone number and save lots of money.
 
Have used Ooma for a few years now and it works great. I absolutely LOVE having voicemails sent to email. Saves big bucks too.


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I do not recommend Ooma. I had it for several years. Their equipment (phones specifically) were cheap and cumbersome. Hated using those phones.
Then I decided to cancel and Ooma tried to nickel and dime me before letting me go. Terrible experience with those guys.
Who needs to pay a monthly rate to make calls if one has a mobile phone to call anywhere in the world for free?
I ended up getting a Google Voice account (free), porting my number from Ooma to Google ($20, one-time fee), and getting all my calls through Google Voice (free). My calls can be automatically transferred to my mobile or Google sends me a notification of the call and a transcript in case someone leaves a voicemail.
 
Thank you for that information. I’m eventually thinking about porting my mom’s landline number to another service like Ooma, possibly. She (we) are paying way to much for what she needs and no longer really likes to use her cell phone. She’s old school that way. I just need the phone service at home to be transparent to her with her original number. Everything else is unnecessary.
 
Just be careful with a senior. If the electricity goes out, a VOIP service (Ooma, google, whatever) will not work if the internet doesn’t work. Their cellphone should still work as discussed above, but just in case you have a double whammy.

I have a senior for whom I’m responsible and just pay for the landline.


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I’ve been thinking about that. Mom is close to 88 and lives with me. But there are times I’m not home and need to either get in touch with her or more importantly, she needs me or 911.

Since this last power outage, it has become even more clear how important it is to get in contact with her but everything has been down.
 
joeinid said:
I’ve been thinking about that. Mom is close to 88 and lives with me. But there are times I’m not home and need to either get in touch with her or more importantly, she needs me or 911.

Since this last power outage, it has become even more clear how important it is to get in contact with her but everything has been down.
Click to expand...

Power outages can be rough. A whole house generator that automatically comes on when this happens is nice, but rather expensive.

Apple phone and Apple Watch can be combined to help in some instances. The Apple watch has Fall Detection - or whatever Apple's name for it is. The end user doesn't have to know how to use the phone (i.e. you could set it up for your mom). The watch will send a signal if she falls - of course she has to be wearing it and insure it's charged up every night, etc.

One last option, when you are really concerned have the police dept do a wellness check (different depts may call it different things). However, if the dept is busy there can be a delay to regular response times. Since I know the sheriff in her county very well, I use this last one for my mom all the time. Since, I'm 4 hours away from her, I also call her friends to do checks on her.

Anyway just some ideas.
 
Thank you so much for that post Joe.

I need to keep it simple and transparent to her, whatever I do.
 
Another advantage of a landline is that you can make/receive phone calls even if there is a power outage. When I had a landline, I used to keep a very basic phone somewhere in the house. This is a very cheap phone with no frills (no memory, no power supply, etc.). That phone worked like a charm even if there was a power outage.

I agree with the comment about being careful if trying to use any VOIP with an elderly person. You need something that is simple and reliable. Sometimes the Ooma would stop working for whatever reason and you would not know it for days unless you tried to use a Ooma phone to make a call or somebody who tried calling the Ooma line tells you. (The Ooma and the router would get out of sync and it was necessary to be reset them to communicate with each other).
 
Calvin said:
Power outages can be rough. A whole house generator that automatically comes on when this happens is nice, but rather expensive.
Click to expand...

I sprung for a whole house generator during my renovation and, thus far, it has worked great. Two outages of several hours each and, other than an initial blink, worked just fine after it kicked on both times. That said, it’s much cheaper just to do a basic landline for mom.



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