Ooma Adds Wi-Fi Option to VoIP Services

Call me old fashioned, but when I’m home or at an office, I like making and receiving phone calls from something that resembles a regular desk phone.  One thing I like about desk phones is that they’re tethered to the wall with a cord, so I’m less likely to misplace them. Another thing is that you don’t have to worry about the battery running down.  And, for the most part, the call quality is better on a regular old phone than on a cell phone.
Of course, there are all sorts of voip services that let you make free or cheap calls from PCs, tablets and other mobile devices, but as great as services like Sykpe and Gmail voice are, there is still a lot to be said for being able to pick up a regular phone. The trouble with regular voip phone service is that it costs a lot if you get it from one of those legacy phone companies like AT&T or Verizon.  Not only do you pay a monthly service charge but — unless you have a special plan — you could wind up paying quite a bit for long distance or even when calling nearby communities.
Vonage — at about $25 a month for unlimited U.S. calling and free calls to many European countries — is a better deal than most regular phone company plans, but the cost of the service still adds up.
Ooma has a different pricing strategy. You don’t have to pay monthly fees for the basic service (you do pay some taxes) but you have to buy the equipment starting at about $250 (you can find it for less) and once you own the Ooma router, you are free to use it. Once you own the handset, all you pay are taxes, which average about $3.50 a month. Long distance calls within the U.S.  are free.  Overseas rates vary by country but start at two cents a minute to call landlines in many countries. Calls to cell phones overseas are higher because — in most countries outside of North America — the caller pays the “air time.”