Ooma Offers Internet Telephone Calls

Ooma offers a device that needs to be connected to the user’s broadband connection and to the phone line. The device also provides with second phone line and voicemail.

Here is how the device works: while performing a long distance call, you device takes your voice via internet to the other country’s device. Then the device you’re calling to, takes your voice to the destination phone number via local line. And so you need to pay only for the local call.

The device offered by Ooma is set to cost $399. Users will still need to keep the basic phone line and pay for local services, because peer-to-peer will not work without it. Ooma representative said, that customers yet don’t show any tendency to drop their phone lines, this is why internet telephone is a valuable service.

To call via internet you must make sure that the person you’re calling also has an Ooma device. But since the initiative is new, the company has to spread a big amount of devices to create a network. This is why Ooma announced a beta period to spread about 2000 devices for free.

It is still a big question if customers will decide to switch to peer-to-peer, because most of them already trust cable providers such as Vonage or SunRocket. Most of SunRocket’s customers pay $199 annually for long distance calls.

Anyway, Ooma’s initiative sounds promising, because internet telephone is innovation, and the company has a good startup of $27 million funding and TiVo’s former chief executive Mike Ramsay in the board of directors. HULIQ