Ooma Offers Free Long Distance Forever
Ablang
The free service also comes with a network-based message box that can
deliver voicemail via e-mail attachments and that can be checked via
the Web.
Tim Greene, Network World
Monday, July 23, 2007 8:00 AM PDT
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134942/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws
VOIP startup Ooma offers free domestic long-distance phone service
forever if you buy an Ooma appliance for $399.
Forever is a long time not to take in any revenue, so the company
plans to offer supplemental services for a fee, such as ringtones,
says CEO and founder Andrew Frame. More supplemental services are in
the works, Frame says.
The service differs from VOIP carrier Vonage's services in that
customers pay a monthly fee for Vonage calling packages. They also
have to buy an adapter that translates analog phone dialing and
conversation to IP and vice-versa.
Vonage is running into trouble over patents that Verizon claims it
owns, so its future is uncertain. Another VOIP start-up SunRocket went
belly-up this week, underscoring how tough it is to make a profit as a
pure VOIP provider.
Ooma's service is designed for residential customers, and it uses the
Internet when it can to complete calls. When it can't, it uses the
public switched telephone network (PSTN), Frame says.
The free service also comes with a network-based message box that can
deliver voicemail via e-mail attachments and that can be checked via
the Web.
Some of the calls go over the Internet exclusively, some go over the
public phone network and some go over both.
For instance, if a person uses Ooma to call another Ooma customer, the
call goes over the Internet, hub to hub. Ooma won't say how hubs tap
address tables to find other Ooma hubs.
If the call is long distance, it starts as an Internet call until it
finds an Ooma box (called a hub) in the local calling area of the
number dialed. That local Ooma hub makes a local phone call over the
public phone network and patches the call through at no cost.
If the call is local, it goes out over the public phone network.
Emergency 911 calls also go out over the public phone network as well.
The preferred method of deploying the device is with both a broadband
Internet connection - at least 256Kbps - and a traditional phone line.
If the customer doesn't have a traditional voice landline, an Ooma hub
will connect the call to the public phone network through its network
and termination agreements with carriers.
If Ooma hubs penetrated every calling area, and the hubs all had POTS
lines, all the long distance calls could be completed with local calls
rather via an Ooma-to-carrier connection with a public phone provider.
"We will handle the termination some way or other," says Frame.
Ooma hubs plug into an electrical socket and a phone line equipped
with a DSL Internet connection or into a cable Internet connection. A
standard analog phone plugs into the hub as well and is used to make
and receive calls. The hub automatically creates a second line to
accept two calls at once.
Adding an extra extension to the system requires a second Ooma device
called a scout that plugs into an electrical socket and communicates
with the hub using IP over power line technology.
George
> Ooma Offers Free Long Distance Forever
> The free service also comes with a network-based message box that can
> deliver voicemail via e-mail attachments and that can be checked via
> the Web.
> Tim Greene, Network World
> Monday, July 23, 2007 8:00 AM PDT
>
> http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134942/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws
>
> VOIP startup Ooma offers free domestic long-distance phone service
> forever if you buy an Ooma appliance for $399.
>
So the question would be how much faith do you have to prepay the $399
given the usual result for such startups? (Especially since others in
the VoIP space that looked more promising than this such as Voicestick
have failed)
www.Queensbridge.us
Another company
Norvergence
also sold a miraculous to save phone $$.
Read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norvergence
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