The Ooma Hub plugs into a phone jack and routes calls via a users’ broadband connection. It enables local and long-distance callings, including voicemail, three-way conferencing, call waiting and caller ID. International phone calls do cost extra, but at a low rate.
An extra $40 buys users an Ooma Scout unit, which adds a second phone line.
While there are no extra costs for users for the first three years, after that time there may be fees, said the company.
If Ooma sounds too good to be true, it may just well be. Blogger Yusuf Motiwala, who is a director at Indian telcom company Plurant Technologies, said Ooma’s peer-to-peer VoIP technology relies on underutilized landlines. Because this may be construed as a commercial exploit of a phone company’s network, Ooma may potentially leave itself open to lawsuits from the phone company, Motiwala said, in his blog.
And it was not immediately clear just how Ooma will secure its service.
