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Smart homes are all the rage right now. Having your lights connected to your thermostat, microwave and coffee maker can make you house run a little smoother and futuristic. With a few knobs and pulleys, breakfast can be made using a skateboard a chicken some eggs and a rubber glove. Kidding!
But in all seriousness smart houses are getting more and more complex and more interesting. Today we looked at the home phone plan known as Ooma. Ooma works in a unique way, you but the unit itself, $99.99. Then after words all you have to pay is a one time phone number port fee and monthly taxes and fess and such adding up to less then $10 in most areas, even less then $5 in others.
In our house we use a Voice over IP phone line which is similar to Ooma but ends up costing quite a bit more then it, $40-$45 per month compared to Oooma’s $7.
This ends up saving us ,pre then $400 per year. This adds up quickly and is a nice to actually have some money tucked away.
Ooma can also interface with your smart home devices including Amazon Echo, Nest, Phillip Hue and LIFX smart light bulbs, and others, making your home safer and more convenient than before. Some exampled of what Ooma can do with your smart home are:
Receive a call when smoke or carbon monoxide is detected with the option to connect to local emergency services.
Initiate a call or check messages with Amazon Echo’s Alexa voice assistant.
Automatically turn on call forwarding when you leave home.
Get incoming calls and voicemail notifications on an Apple Watch or Android Wear Watch.
Get alerted of incoming phone call or voicemails visually with lights and know if it’s someone you know (Green) vs. someone you don’t (Red).
What most surprised us is the quality of the phone calls and the service provided to a bare minimum of charges. For simply taxes and fees you can receive:
Free U.S. Calling: Only pay taxes and fees, no long-term contract required.
#1 rated home phone service for five years in a row by leading consumer research publication
Superior voice quality and reliability
Caller ID and call-waiting
Free Ooma-to-Ooma calling anywhere in world
30-day money-back guarantee and extendable 1-year warranty with live customer support
911 Calling and Text Alerts
Free Mobile App
15 minute, easy set-up
One-time $39.99 transfer fee to keep home phone number or choose your own number in most any available area code for free
My Ooma online portal: Play messages, check call logs and control preferences online, from anywhere
There is also a Premiere service which better help with smart home integration as well as some more nifty bells and whistles, costing $9.99/month.
Block telemarketers and other unwanted calls with personal, community and expanded blacklists
Free calling to Canada
Instant Second Line
Voicemail-to-email forwarding
Ring your home and mobile simultaneously
Call forwarding
Anonymous call blocking
Enhanced caller ID
Smart Home integrations (except Amazon Echo, which is part of Basic service)
We switched to Ooma because it’s much cheaper than our old phone company. The phone seems to work fine. I didn’t know you could do all of those other things with it. We just use it for our home phone.