Obsessable has been testing an ooma Hub, ooma Scout, and the ooma VoIP service that provides unlimited U.S. calling with no monthly fees with the purchase of these devices. With a broadband internet connection and a regular telephone, you can have free telephone service with a phone number in your area code or an area code of your choosing for the life of the device. That one point of appeal for the ooma service could make the $250 spent on the device a no brains cost-cutter for some, but it's also the Achilles' heel of the device. If you break the device, you have to invest in a new unit. If ooma fails to continue selling units and selling additional service-related items like overseas long distance minutes on their plan and their ooma Premium service to support their ongoing business and were to eventually go under, you'd be left with a device that does nothing. This is clearly one of the buyer fears that ooma is trying to calm, as they even have a page devoted to explaining how they make money. That being said, successful companies like TiVo started out with similar operating business models to ooma's, and given their widespread availability, the cost savings that are possible with the service, and the performance we experienced over the past several weeks, we wouldn't bet against the long term success of the company yet. See below for our full review.

 

The Build

Both the ooma Hub (pictured below) and the ooma Scout (pictured above) look like big-buttoned answering machines designed to go alongside big-buttoned phones designed for people with vision problems. Each unit has a built-in speaker for listening to voicemails, controls for playing back, rewinding, and deleting voicemails, and 2 buttons that are for using the second line feature of the ooma that comes free with the device for the first 90 days, but otherwise costs an extra subscription fee to the ooma Premium service. Neither unit takes up too much space, although our cable modem, the ooma Hub, and our desk phone sitting in a row on the left side of our desk took up all but about seven inches of available space. 

 

The Ports

The ooma Hub has a port for the AC adapter, a phone line jack for connecting to either a phone or connecting into your home's phone line for connecting all your phone jacks to the ooma, and it  has two ethernet ports: one for connecting to your cable / DSL modem and another one to connect to your computer / router. The ooma Scout, which needs an ooma Hub to work, has a port for the AC adapter and two phone line jacks: one for connecting to a wall jack and one to connect to a phone. The ooma Scout can be used for accessing your ooma voicemail from a phone other than the one where you have the ooma Hub installed and you can have multiple ooma Scouts installed alongside multiple phones in your household, however, you do not need an ooma Scout to connect phones in other rooms over ooma. Connecting the ooma Hub to your phone jack shares its connection with all the phones in your home. 

In addition to the ports and controls on each device, there is a translucent plastic tab at the back of each device that glows blue if the ooma connection and network are up and working smoothly and glows red if there is a connection problem. The brightness of the light can be adjusted or turned off entirely by a control on the right side of the device to prevent the light from disturbing you at night. There is also a volume control for the speaker on the left side of the device.

The Speaker

The speaker is nice, clear, and loud, however, it is only for checking and accessing voicemail. There is no microphone in the unit and neither the ooma Hub nor the ooma Scout can double as speakerphones.

The Service

During our several weeks of testing, we found the ooma service to be quite reliable for placing and receiving phone calls. I used the device as my office phone, placing and receiving calls daily, and participating in numerous hour long conference calls. The only time I found the service to be unavailable was when my home cable connection was down. The ooma service is dependent upon a working broadband internet connection, so if your regular provider has problems, you'll be left without a home phone line. The same holds true for power outages. Of all the calls that I placed on the ooma service, I only had problems on two occasions and the problems were the typical type of echo effect that sometimes occurs on VoIP calls when too much network activity is hogging your connection. One time, when I was talking I heard a slight echo of myself during the call, but the person I was speaking with didn't hear the echo. Another time, the exact reverse happened where the person I was speaking to heard an echo while I did not, and in this case, the problem could have been that person's cellular phone's connection. Despite these two times where there was some slight echo, we found the ooma to be a reliable replacement for a landline phone. The vast majority of calls placed on the device were crystal clear and better than some of the cell phones we've used in the past. As a longtime user of Skype, the calls placed on the ooma easily and consistently outperformed Skype's quality while providing the features of SkypeIn and SkypeOut without the extra fees. I also have a VoIP solution through my cable provider that my wife and I use as our home phone service and the ooma performed on par with that service, but without the monthly fee, so I am considering switching.

One odd thing about the ooma service is the ooma dial tone. There's a four note musical sequence that quickly plays when you first pick up the phone and before you get the dial tone. It's not overly loud or jarring; it's just different. However, when you place outgoing calls, the same little bit of music plays ever so lightly when the recipient of the call picks up the phone. I polled nearly everyone I called to see if they noticed it. About half did, but most of them didn't really think anything of it. Something about music playing lightly at the beginning of a call reminds me of that horrible pause that I hear from telemarketers after I pick up the phone, say hello, and they pause before launching into their script. To a certain degree, it's good branding for ooma as the notes tell the person your calling that you're using their service, but it doesn't change the fact that no matter how subtle it may be, it's still a bit odd. If I'm placing a business call to someone I'm interested in working with, I'm not sure if I want their first impression of me to be ooma's musical notes.

During our trial period, we received free access to the ooma Premier service, which ooma offers for $12.99/month or $99.99/year. The Premier service includes features such as a second line that allows two users to talk simultaneously to two separate callers, three-way conferencing, and call forwarding to another number. Premier users also have access to voicemail features like message screening, transferring a call to voicemail, voicemail forwarding, and the option for calls to go directly to voicemail without the unit's ringer sounding. The two-lines on the same number feature is definitely an interesting one and the ability to easily conference in the two lines into one group call by simply hitting the 1 and 2 buttons simultaneously worked seamlessly and was neat.

What's missing?

The main thing missing from both the ooma Hub and the ooma Scout is a built-in phone. I really wanted these to be speakerphones and I would imagine many other ooma users have the same first initial reaction to the device. Having the ooma Hub, my phone, and my cable modem all stacked along the left side of my desk results in a clunky grouping of devices and wires that could be lessened by a combination ooma and phone.

What we'd like to see in future models

ooma should make both the ooma Hub and ooma Scout into functional speakerphones at the least, and full combination phones and speakerphones at the most, but still provide the ability to plug in an external phone if the user wants. That way, the minimalists out there can cut down on desk and table clutter by eliminating the need for another device. We'd also like to see ooma do away with the cutesy musical notes when we're placing outgoing calls. We don't mind it at the beginning of the dial tone, but when placing calls it could come off as unprofessional.

Obsessable Recommendation

If you still have a need for a home phone and you're already paying a monthly fee for broadband internet, ooma may be a great cost-cutting option for you. There are similar VoIP solutions available via most broadband providers, via Vonage, and via Skype, but all those come with a continuing service fee. True you can use Skype freely as a VoIP solution for calling to other Skype users, but if you want to call to landlines or accept calls from landlines to a number provided to you by Skype, you will end up paying a fee. Although I'm a longtime Skype user and I use Skype on both my PSP and a WiFi Skype phone that I bought several years ago, ooma's service offers a far more consistent and reliable VoIP solution than Skype and at a much lower cost considering all the features included. If ooma's marketing numbers on their webpage are to be believed, if your phone bill is normally $50 a month, you'll be saving $350 in the first year of ooma service.

Obsessable Rating: 7 out of 10