VOIP Phone Service (UPDATE on OOMA) 

1. What's VOIP Phone Service and why is it important in today's inflation?

•  VOIP is Voice Over IP InternetProtocol/provider) There are many to choose from and you will need their special adapter (see previous Ooma posts from October 2018)

• OOMA Adapters are about $70-$80 on sale 
• Monthly as low as $6-$7 per month Basic Service  (USA/Canada unlimited long distance and covers the fees, taxes and 911). 

• Premium service which includes lots of extras like Spam control, Second Line, 3-way calling,  etc is about $11/month--See all details at VoIP Phone Services - #1 VoIP for Business and Home (ooma.com)

• Walmart sells Ooma Genie at a considerable discount but labelled as Ooma Genie--see description here--BUT the type of internet service it requires may be LTE Cellular only instead of regular Wi-Fi But at $29.88-- a real steal  https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ooma-Phone-Genie-VoIP-home-phone-service-Affordable-Internet-based-landline-replacement-Unlimited-nationwide-calling-robocall-blocking-and-more/710320138?athbdg=L1100

• GOOGLE VOICE Adapter -- about same price on Amazon, but is very technical to keep up with and does not include 911 service. Also, support limited to one year and not easily reached.  I use it only as a backup.  

• VONAGE--another VOiP service--tried it for a couple of months--more pricey/month with less minutes/month than Ooma and customer support iffy--but you get the adapter free (still have mine) but had trouble transporting my regular phone number out to Ooma)

 2. What are other advantages, other than price?

• Saving all the fees and taxes that landlines or other services require--telcoms--such as the last we had was Century Link (taken over from US West) and the fees were $14/month--almost half of the plan we had which was basic, no long distance.

• Portability of the Units--the Ooma and Google Voice adapter have Wi-Fi antenna so you can take the unit anywhere you can get Wi-Fi and are able to use your phone number wherever.

• Can use your regular phone system -- such as one we have is a Panasonic base station with 5 handsets--has lasted over a decade. Great for conference phone calls with whole family.

• Spam control--we can set up a contact list that Ooma uses to block calls not in your Contact list and either block them or send to voicemail (just in case it's someone you want to talk to not in your Contact List.)

• WiFi seems more stable for the VoiP phones as Cell towers sometimes get trafficky and voice quality or access may not be reliable.