Take a look at Ooma- you pay only taxes (about $4 to $6 per month depending on area) or can get "premium" for an additional $10. Phone can be ported easily, and the quality is great! I have my families behind our router, and it is still fine because I set up QOS. If you have basic internet needs, you can place it between the modem and router for the best possible call quality. (can mess up some more rarely used technical stuff though)
My roomate recommended this, and I know a few people who use it. You just need the base, and can use a standard telephone with it. $140 (refurbished) or $180 buy in for that, but it is a one time cost.
Every one of these threads, someone always recommends an Ooma device... and you know what, if the VoIP telecom market were filled with nothing but Vonage and BroadVoice,
maybe the math would work out. People who suggest Ooma are naïve folks who can't do the math and get blinded by the magic word "free". No offense intended, Innkeeper. The services for what you pay is terrible and the quality of their proprietary equipment for what you pay is sad. I've done this before, but I'll do it again because I can't find the other post.
You just need the base, and can use a standard telephone with it. $140 (refurbished) or $180 buy in for that, but it is a one time cost.
you pay only taxes (about $4 to $6 per month depending on area) or can get "premium" for an additional $10.
Only paying "taxes" qualifies as a
recurring cost, and Ooma's taxes and fees are more than twice what everyone else pays for taxes on their VoIP lines for e911 and regulatory fees.
We'll run the math here for a $140 refurbished and proprietary Ooma base station with this closed provider that requires only their overpriced equipment to operate... with number porting and their "free" service. A two year window is a good start, and we'll take the cheapest monthly fee quoted.
$140 for the ATA
$96 for taxes ($4/month for 24 months)
$40 for number porting
$276 TOTAL for two years of "free" telephone service, or aggregated out, $11.50 a month for 24 months. And surprise! If you want the ability to have a failsafe rollover for network outages with your service on Ooma so you don't miss calls, have your voicemail recordings forwarded to your email address, three-way calling, or want Caller ID NAME provided for incoming calls (all things that pretty much every other VoIP provider includes as
basic service without an added premium)?
That's an extra $10 a month. Also, if you read their
Terms and Conditions, you exceed 5000 minutes, they review your account.... and that "free" service is only supposed to be for
residential use only, and
any business use requires a different plan that
coincidentally starts at $20 a month, and you
still have to use their $140+ proprietary ATA that has a general history of not lasting more than 2-4 years due to capacitor issues. (For context, I'd like to point out the average consumer ATA price averages about $50... they might not have all the bells and whistles Ooma has, but that's just what Ooma's additional features are... unnecessary bells and whistles needed to overcome the deliberately limited features provided in their "free" service.)
Now, let's crunch VOIPo's numbers, keeping in mind that they provide free number porting, a free ATA, they unofficially support BYOD through the community forums, and
all of the features that you have to pay Ooma extra for included in their base price.
$185 for two years service ($6.21/month + $1.50 taxes and fees)
$185 TOTAL for two years of telephone service. VOIPo offers that price for residential or business, and their
Terms of Service just has you billed for overages from 5000 minutes so long as it doesn't happen regularly. This is $91 less than Ooma in a two year period.
Now, let's assume if you were to stay with either beyond the two year period, and
completely ignoring that VOIPo runs discount bundle packages in annual or two year allotments for existing customers and you opt instead to pay their $15/month monthly fee, or $16.50 a month after tax and Ooma stays $4 a month if you could live with their limited features... it'd still take another seven months (91/12.5) on top of that two years to even break even... and that's assuming you haven't bought the Telo at full price or any other equipment from Ooma or needed to
replace anything in addition to dealing with no failsafe or forwarding options with incoming calls and hoping you didn't get audited and nailed for using their service for business use on top of not even trying to get another bundle price from VOIPo. These numbers weigh very quickly in VOIPo's favor over Ooma if you need call forwarding or failsafe or or or or... with Ooma
never being able to come in cheaper.
Now, if you don't care about voice quality quite as much, there's
NetTalk. They too provide
all the features you have to pay Ooma extra for. Their cap is
3,000 minutes a month for home or home office usage, they allow FAX service if necessary, their device is
under $50 and includes a free year of service, and each additional year is
only $30+tax, and the call quality and support is generally
far better than MagicJack. I still wouldn't recommend NetTalk for this particular application due to the service's shortcomings... but I'd still recommend them over Ooma any day of the week except the Shabbat, because I try not to discuss business then. If asked and I did respond however, it'd still be Nettalk over Ooma.
As you can see, Ooma simply doesn't hold up when you do the math. This doesn't mean that Ooma customers aren't happy with their service for what they're paying... it just means they're not getting the great deal they
think they are and it's simply not worth spending money on if you spend any real time researching and know the alternatives available. When you look at the
real numbers and the way it's set up, Ooma is clearly a racket designed to bleed you for more than you need to pay.