ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 2 x 7.5 inches ; 14.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002O3W4LE
• Item model number: 100-0201-100
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank

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  #1 in	Electronics > Office Electronics > Telephones & Accessories > VoIP > Phones
  #22 in	Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Networking Products

• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 1, 2009

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Ooma Telo is a revolutionary device that allows you to call anywhere in the U.S. with no monthly fees. You can also make international calls for next to nothing. Ooma is easy to set up and even easier to use. You simply connect the device to your high-speed Internet and your existing phone, and that's it. You don't need a computer, and you don't need a headset. With the Ooma Telo, you'll be ready to start calling and saving money within minutes.

NOTE: The Ooma Telo requires high-speed Internet and a router (sold separately).

Overview

Your one-time purchase of the Ooma system delivers:

• Free calling within U.S. and low-cost international calls with no monthly bills
• Caller-ID, call-waiting and 911
• Outstanding voice quality and secure, encrypted phone calls
• Easy set-up with any telephone; no PC required
• Option to keep your current number and landline service
• 30-day money-back guarantee and extendable 1-year warranty
• Free trial of Ooma Premier -- a suite of enhanced features

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Features

Call anywhere in the U.S., free of charge and without monthly bills!

Free Calls in the U.S. and Low International Rates
With its sleek design and loaded features, the only thing that's not stunning about the Ooma Telo is the price tag. The Ooma Telo allows you to enjoy free home phone service, free calls within the United States, and exceptionally low international rates. The end result: you'll save hundreds of dollars a year in phone bills.


Crisp, Clear Voice Quality with No Dropped Calls
The Ooma system has been designed to deliver exceptional voice quality and reliability, giving you the crisp, acoustic performance of a landline, without the associated monthly charges.

You can get your Ooma phone service up and running in a mere 20 minutes. View larger

Easy Installation with your Existing Phones
The Telo has been designed for an intuitive and easy installation. It connects to your router with the included Ethernet cable, and to your existing telephone with the included telephone cord. Most customers are connected and making calls within about 20 minutes. If you've got any questions, Ooma's online support site is loaded with dozens of articles, diagrams, tips, and facts.

By replacing your landline with Ooma, you could save a bundle.

Port Your Existing Phone Number
For a one-time fee of $39.95, Ooma gives you the option of retaining your current telephone number. Or, if you want to change numbers, you can choose a new number in any calling area in the US to use with your Ooma unit.


Low-Cost Landline Option for Added Flexibility
Ooma gives you the option of integrating a low-cost landline as a backup. This way, you'll be able to enjoy the assurance of traditional 911 service and seamless coverage during Internet and power outages.


Supports the Ooma Telo Handset
Get the most out of your Ooma Telo with the official Ooma Telo Handset. Thanks to DECT 6.0 technology, the handset enhances the already clear, crisp sound quality of Ooma. It allows you to take full advantage of Ooma's premium features like Instant Second Line and personal number setting. You don't need a Telo Handset to use Ooma, but it will definitely enhance your experience.

Ooma Lounge gives you unrestricted access to your account and phone service.

Exclusive Web Portal
The Ooma Lounge is your online destination for the Ooma service. You can listen to messages, check your call logs, control your account preferences, prepay for international calling, and even set up voicemail notifications, 24 hours a day. There's also an online phonebook, which can be accessed if you're using the Ooma Telo Handset (sold separately).

What's in the Box
Ooma Telo, Ethernet cable, phone cable, and AC adapter.

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Discover Ooma Premier

If you want to add a bundle of enhanced calling features that will get your home phone service firing on all cylinders, Ooma Telo includes a free 60-day trial to Ooma Premier, a suite of enhanced calling features. You can also add Ooma Premium to your service for $9.99/month or $119.99/year. If you sign up for a year, you'll have the option of retaining your current telephone number for free ($39.99 value), or receiving a free HD handset ($49.99 value). See the chart below for a full list of Ooma Premium features.

Ooma Premier Subscription Features: Advanced Voicemail Options for voicemail forwarding and added privacy Instant Second Line for large households with busy phone lines Personal Numbers for all family members so you'll always know who a call is for Call Blocking and Community Blacklist to help rid yourself of persistent telemarketers Multi-ring, which lets you forward your calls to your cell phone or any other phone you choose Three-way Conference Calls so that you can easily add a third person to your calls And much, much more.

Advanced Voicemail Features
With Ooma Premier, you'll have access to several first-class voicemail options. You'll be able to enjoy the ultimate convenience of having your voicemails forwarded to e-mail, allowing you to check your phone messages from work. And for added privacy, you'll have the option of making any Ooma device a private extension.



Instant Second Line
If you share your house with a phone hog, Ooma's Instant Second Line feature presents a solution for you. When the line is already in use, you can simply pick up a second Ooma Handset and get a fresh dial tone. Up to two separate calls can be made simultaneously.

Program unique numbers and ring sounds for everyone in the family.

Personal Number
With an affordable Ooma Premier subscription, you gain access to the Personal Number feature. This feature allows you to create a unique phone number for everyone in the family. Multiple numbers can be mapped to the same handset, but you can make each number ring distinctively so you know who the call is for. Up to nine additional numbers are allowed.


Add Unwanted Callers to Your Blacklist
Ooma allows you to instantly add unwanted callers to your blocked list. If telemarketers are harassing you, use Ooma Lounge to add them to your blacklist. You'll have the option to block future calls completely or send them straight to voicemail. The choice is yours.

Blacklist unwanted callers with Ooma Premiere.

Community Blacklist
Harness the power of the Ooma community and protect yourself from unwanted callers before they've even tried to call you. If enough Ooma users have blocked a certain caller, Ooma will add this caller to the community blacklist. Combine this with Ooma's special spam-detecting algorithms, and you've got the ultimate telemarketer blacklist.


Multi-Ring
Constantly on the go? Multi-Ring takes call forwarding to the next level. Configure your Ooma number to simultaneously ring your home phone and mobile phone at the same time. Whether you're at home or on the road, you'll never miss a call.


Three-way Conference Calls
Need to make dinner plans with two of your friends? Ooma's got you covered. Once you're on a call, press the second-line button to make or take a second call. Press down both line buttons at once, and you've got yourself a conference call.

Product Description

Free home phone service with ooma; Free calling in the U.S. to any phone number; caller-ID, call-waiting and 911 included; No monthly fees; No computer or headset required; Option to keep your existing phone number; Low-cost international rates starting at pennies per minute

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 124 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great looking and improved Ooma VOIP device, October 3, 2009

By	Pilchard (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

The Ooma Telo replaces or will replace the Ooma core system. The core system included a hub and scout. The scout and services of the scout are gone from new Ooma devices. In the future, some (but not all) services of the scout may return via the proprietary wireless Ooma Telo handset.

For those who don't know, Ooma is an internet telephone company. This means it uses the Telo to make and receive telephone calls, instead of using your local phone company and its wired network, Ooma uses your internet connection. Companies that use internet to make and complete telephone calls are using Voice Over Internet Protocol usually referred to as VOIP. Older phone technology to a home is often referred to as POTS (plain old telephone service). With Ooma you can replace your current home phone, or you can use Ooma to supplement it. Ooma lets a customer decide how they want to use their service with respect to existing POTS service.

[...]. This will allow the Telo to make and receive calls using your current home phone number. Your number will be switched to Ooma, but still be in your name (you can port it to any other phone company if you want). Ooma becomes your host.

A reason people purchase a product like the Telo is to have low cost phone service. Most VOIP (including Ooma) do not discriminate between long distance and local calls. Ooma permits up to 5,000 outgoing minutes of calls within the U.S. per month at no charge. Incoming calls are unlimited and not timed.

Ooma has established itself as a high voice quality company with its first product (the Ooma Core). The Telo continues to build on that tradition. With any Ooma product voice quality is usually as good as a problem free home phone. The Telo builds on this, by offering higher quality voice than any traditional phone company, and better voice quality than most other VOIP companies by using a proprietary wireless handset. This looks like a traditional land line type wireless phone, but has much better call clarity than is possible for most other providers. This is one of the new, improved features of the Telo.

Ooma is also very easy to set up and operate. Many people report setting up an Ooma device within 10-20 minutes from the time they open the box. This means they can make and receive calls literally within minutes of getting their Ooma device home. Set up involves a physical set up, where the Telo is placed between the router and cable / dsl modem or behind the router. [...]and follow the step by step instructions for a free activation. Part of the activation usually includes selection of a local phone number. Once you have completed the online activation, the Telo should be able to send and receive calls in minutes.

The Telo IS a work of art, it looks very nice, and has a wonderful aesthetic appeal. There are pressure sensitive buttons, and just about every button, plus a lot more is lit up with beautiful blue LED's. When a line is busy, or the hub isn't working properly the color of the appropriate indicator changes from blue to red. For example if you pick up the phone, the line 1 button will no longer glow blue, but will turn red to indicate line 1 in use. If there is any connection problem, the Ooma trademark symbol will glow red, this is very easy to see even across a large room. It usually indicates an internet failure.

The Telo works with wireless Ooma proprietary handsets which are optional. These handsets will support high quality (better than regular phone quality) calls between Telo users. The Telo continues to support traditional phones as well. You do not need a Telo handset to make and receive calls, your old phones will work just fine. In my home, I have disconnected the phone company wires outside the house, and plugged my Ooma Telo into one of my jacks. This permits the Telo to run all the existing phones in my home as if they were still attached to the phone company. The difference is not getting a monthly phone bill.

The Telo has a more advanced processor and is overall a more capable device than the older Ooma Hub (the Hub is the primary component of the older Ooma Core system). Ooma has promised new features to be released, which will be restricted to the Telo alone. This makes the Telo a natural upgrade path from the Core in terms of overall capability.

Current Ooma Core customers can upgrade to the Telo, and switch their account entirely to the new Telo device. The older Core / Hub can be sold or discarded. The old Ooma hub can be reactivated for a $[...] one time fee, at which point it will be considered as a new service.

The Telo is superior in almost all regards to the older Ooma hub.

The Ooma Telo will continue to provide free voicemail as the older Core systems did. This means voicemail will be supported by the Telo adapter, by your phone or online via the Ooma website. However the basic Ooma Telo plan will not include incoming caller-id name (it will include incoming caller-id number). This is a change from the older Ooma Core system. Ooma has indicated the cost of incoming caller-name lookup was significant, and that by eliminating this expense on future basic plans Ooma will be more viable.

As with all Ooma devices, Ooma Premier is free for the first 60 days. During the first 2 months, a new user will be able to make free calls to Ooma technical support. Thus any set up issues can be handled by a live Ooma customer service representative. After 60 days, Telo users are put on a Telo basic tier, where future support is handled via email and through the Ooma forums which remain free.



In summary, the new Telo is a great product. In years 2 and beyond there will be a $[...] per year regulatory recovery fee for Telo users. This is new for the Telo, those who bought new Ooma Core systems do not have to pay an annual fee ever. The fee is to cover regulatory costs Ooma is charged, not to charge for making or receiving calls.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent design, service and value, October 15, 2009

By	Ashok Aiyar (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

We purchased an Ooma Hub & Scout in April 2009 to replace a Vonage VoIP connection. We are very satisfied with the hub, and therefore purchased an Ooma Telo for a second location. This review describes our Ooma Telo experience so far, and compares it to the Hub/Scout.

The Telo is well designed and sleek. The controls are touch controls and very sensitive. There is a USB port in the back - presumably for future expansion. Like the hub, there are two RJ45 ethernet jacks - one to connect to the "internet", and the second to connect to one's home network. There are also two RJ11 phone jacks. One to connect to your existing landline, should you have one, and decide to integrate the landline and Telo. The other is to connect to your phone.

The setup instructions are simple. While it is recommended that the Telo be connected directly to your cable/dsl/wimax modem (i.e. before your router), it works equally well after the router. We chose to connect the Telo to the router rather than the modem.

We were treated to a red & blue patriotic light show for about 20 minutes when the Telo was first plugged in, while it apparently downloaded firmware/software updates. I was a little puzzled by this, but presumably there have been updates from the release date (October 1) to our purchase date (October 3), or the first set of units were shipped without the latest firmware/software on them. In either event, there has been a second firmware/software update since then, so clearly Ooma are keen to improve Telo as feedback/complaints from early adopters rolls in.

Unlike the Hub, the Telo doesn't support the Scout. But this doesn't mean the Telo cannot provide a dial tone at other phone jacks in your house. For this, simply connect a splitter to the phone jack in the Telo, plug one line into the telephone adjacent to the Telo, and the second into the nearest wall jack. If the phone wiring in your house is intact, you should be able to connect a standard wired phone to any other phone jack. The Ooma Hub also supports this feature, which isn't readily documented in Ooma's product literature.

The Telo and Hub are indistinguishable in every aspect of call quality. Off course the Telo supports up to four DECT 6.0 handsets, and Telo to Telo calls will offer HD voice. The Telo will also support Bluetooth, and cell-phone integration. Although these features will be available in future firmware/software updates.

There are differences in the level and cost of service that I have described below.

For current Ooma Hub owners:

Ooma Core includes 5000 minutes a month, voicemail and caller-id and is free of regulatory fees for the life of the hub.
Ooma Premiere includes a range of additional features, including a second line, 3-way calling, multi-ring, call fowarding and many others. This costs $9.99 a month or $99 a year.

For future Ooma Hub owners:

Ooma Core will include 5000 minutes a month and voicemail. From the second year, it will cost $12/yr to recover regulatory fees.
Ooma Premiere will include enhanced voicemail, and the other premiere features. Ooma Premiere will cost $9.99 a month or $120 a year.

For Ooma Telo:

Ooma core includes 5000 mins/month & voicemail, and $12/yr from the second year on to recover regulatory fees.
Ooma Premiere will include enhanced voicemail, and the other premiere features at $9.99 a month or $120 a year.

For both the Hub and Telo, the cost of Premiere includes either a free handset a year (a $49 value), or a free number port (a $39 value).

This change in pricing strategy has made some claim that Ooma is no longer "free".

Well, it never was, although current Hub owners will not have to spend another dime for the life of their unit.

New Hub & Telo users receive 5000 mins/month and voicemail for the cost of the unit, and have to pay $12/year from the second year onwards to cover regulatory fees.
In my opinion Ooma continues to remain a good value when compared to other VoIP providers, although clearly early Hub adopters received a better deal than Telo users.

I want to note two other things that are common to the Hub and Telo. Our number ports were quick and efficient. And, while customer service can be difficult to reach, there is excellent support available from the Ooma community on Ooma's website forums. The Ooma employees who moderate the forums also provide support in a very timely manner.

Bottom-line, if you have Vonage or Packet8, or have phone bundled in with your cable, strongly consider getting a Telo. You will save money for service that is as good or better. With the Hub, we saw savings with the first six months. With the Telo it will be about 14 months before we start seeing savings.

Quick summary - highly recommended!

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Product! Definitely Suggest to Friends, October 7, 2009

By	K. Neman (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

After Reading all the great reviews on the original Ooma Hub and Scout. I decided to wait until the telo came out. I ordered mine direct from Amazon and opted for overnight shipping and received the product the next day. Installation was a breeze no problems whatsoever. Once you unbox the unit you are instructed to go to the ooma website to activate your product. I chose not to port my own number over right away just in case I didn't like the service. You can opt for a temporary number and you can I always port when you are ready. The setup time is about 30 min because you have to wait for the telo to download all the updates before it becomes active. Depending on your connection speed it can take up to 30 min.

Once setup there is a unique dial tone. Call are very clear. It is definitely as good as a land line or cell phone. I have mine connected to a Panasonic dect 6.0 phones. Works absolutely great. Both incoming and outgoing caller id works great.

I also made an international call to cell phone and it worked great. So far so good. I just started the port process for my number which they say takes 3-4 weeks. I haven't had to call customer service yet so I can't comment on it.

My overall experience is great. The MY OOMA section of the website works great. You can see call logs, check voicemail. pre pay for international service and manage your premier or basic.

A few things. The premier service is 119.99 for the first year which includes either a free port (39.99) or free dect 6.0 phone (49.99). It's at least worth it for the first year my opinion of course. Also after the first year there is a 12.00 per year surcharge. Other than that it's a great product that works well for the money. My phone bill used to be 80$ per month. Now if you calculate over the course of 1 year 30$. The ooma pays for itself in no time and from then on its all cash in your pocket.