Phone Freedom

Many people have given up their home phones, choosing to have a mobile as their only phone. I am not yet at the point where I'm willing to do this. If I were younger I might feel differently, but I prefer not to have certain types of calls come to my cell phone, things like doctor's office reminder calls, stray telemarketing calls, etc.

And while I want to maintain a home phone, I don't want to have to pay a lot for it every month. Back when we used to live in Somerville, we had a traditional landline through Verizon with additional charges for long distance, until the cable company made phone service available and offered a bundle discount since we already had TV and internet service through them. I think that ran about $25 a month plus taxes for unlimited local and long-distance calling.

[Generational-change aside: the concept of "long distance" and the associated charges seem like such quaint anachronisms now, but I can remember when I was in college how the long-distance rates went down after business hours, and again at 11 pm. My mother used to call me every Thursday night just after 11.]

When we moved five years ago (what?) I decided I could get a home phone line cheaper, and I signed up for VoIP service (phone calling using your high-speed internet connection, but not supplied by your internet provider) with Vonage. At the time they offered an unlimited plan for $25 a month, but they also had a plan they didn't publicize as much: 500 outgoing minutes a month for $15, plus unlimited incoming calls. With taxes it was still under $20 a month, and we didn't make enough calls to worry about ever exceeding the allotted minutes.

But the fees crept up gradually, and then a couple of years ago Vonage raised the cost of the plan, and before I knew it the monthly charge was back up to about $26. I was considering getting rid of the home line, but I didn't really want to. I thought about Skype and Google Voice, but wasn't thrilled with the idea of having to sit at the computer to talk on the phone, or that the computer had to be on to receive an incoming call. (Correct me if I'm wrong about that last part, but I think it's the case.)

Then I heard about Ooma. Ooma is a VoIP service with a difference: you buy a hardware box for around $200, and thereafter you pay no monthly costs except taxes (which Ooma is required by federal law to collect) of around $3-4 a month. You can make and receive unlimited calls in the US (there are additional charges for international calling, but that's not an issue for us). The hardware has the voicemail/answering machine integrated right into it. At the rate I was paying, Ooma will have paid for itself in less than a year.

Ooma will try to sell you a "premier" level of service for $10 a month, but unless you require a second line or some other esoteric features, you don't need it and you're not required to take it. I was able to get the hardware at Costco for $180—the best price I'd seen for it anywhere—and was able to keep our number (there was a $40 fee to port it from Vonage, or I could have opted to get a new number and not pay the fee). Call quality is as good as, if not better than, the Vonage service, and if we move I can just reestablish the service at a different address.

This is not a sponsored post, and I'm not being paid to write about or endorse Ooma. I'm offering it as a suggestion if you want to keep or restart home phone service without another bill to pay every month.