What is a Ooma? I'll do anything to get rid of AT&T, please clue me in? Thanks

Your welcome.

HIWTHI, it's one of the VoIP providers/companies. VoIP is voice over Internet Protocol. It connects to your landlines so you can use your existing phones.

Yes, Ooma is a device you buy that provides VOIP. We got ours from Costco for 179.99 and had it set up w/in 30 minutes. They assign you a temporary number that you can either keep or pay 39.99 (one time fee) to port over your own number from Att. The cost for regular service which includes call waiting, voice mail and caller id is nothing, you only pay the monthly taxes which in our area is 3.96/mo. I just had the pleasure of dumping ATT yesterday and couldn't be more excited! The savings for us was substantial plus we get to keep the number we've had for years. yeah!

We've tried VOIP before so my husband was a little leery; but I figured why not give it a try? If it doesn't work we've really not lost anything, especially since we could get the device from Costco and Ooma offers a temporary number. I was amazed, the calls really are very clear. So far no one has noticed a difference or said anything.

The main requirement is you need to have cable or broadband and not DSL for your internet. If you have DSL, it's worth switching to Broadband, I think.

Of course as with anything there are pros and cons, and you can read about them in the thread I had going. It's really a personal decision about what is best for you.

www.ooma.com

Here is a link that might be useful: landline vs. cell phones

Thanks for all the information, we'll have to look into it.

Sounds cool but if there is a power outage do you lose all your landlines? I assume, since it's attached to the internet you have to have power somehow...

Very interesting. We have AT&T for landline, cells (iphones) and internet (DSL). Knock on wood, but no problems with any of our services. I might be interested in ooma but not sure I want to change internet services. We have a dish, so cable is not an option. Judith raises a good question, also what about alarm services connected to a phone line?

Glad it's working for you!!

tina

It works for us because we're in a more rural setting and the phone goes out periodically with ATT anyways there's really no guarantees. We plan on investing in a generator this year too so even if the power is out, the phone and cable would still be working.

Like I said, it's really a personal choice, but when researching the options, I found ways to work around the different issues and this was ideal for us.

I didn't see the question about alarm services....I'm really not sure if they support alarms or not. There is a chat option on their website so questions can be quickly answered though.

Thanks Lukki. We're rural too but not as wooded as you. But, since we have no problems, I probably shouldn't rock the boat. LOL I may check out the alarm services with the website though. Thanks for the info!

We have been using Vonage for many years now with no problems. We make a lot of international calls so Ooma is not for us but our experience with Voip may help. We have no landlines and almost never have power outages so loss of connection has not been an issue. We have cell phones if there was to be a problem.
We pay a monthly fee (I think it is about $35) for unlimited national and international calls. The fee includes a virtual number (local to our families overseas) so family and friends simply call their local number but are connected direct to us in the USA. Savings for us all!