Ooma really isn’t usable without the Premium call blocking services, because of pervasive spam. Our Ooma cost has been running about $216.50 annually, and we hardly use it any longer for actual calls… we’ve had it “just in case” someone calls us on a number we’ve had for 34 years.
We have started migration to VOIPLY.com’s number parking service. If someone leaves us a voicemail, it will get forwarded to my email. If they text that number, it will get forwarded to my email. There is no equipment, no phone app. There will no no ringing of any hardware at dinnertime.
We migrated our landline from Ooma to Google Voice a couple of years ago. Its free and offers the same capabilities. It took several attempts to figure out the correct PIN code for Ooma.
I thought about that, but I have a certain phone number that has been active with GV for many years, I didn’t want that one to get overwritten. Good idea though.
I want to get rid of OOMA too. Can you make a call from your smartphone with the ported number, if there is a way to link it to your real cell number? GV can do that, but like you, I don’t want to lose my current GV #.
No outgoing calls. But, you can upgrade to another service tier where you can make outgoing calls. It’s not important to me to make calls… I just don’t want to lose the ability for people reach me on my 34 y.o. number. I’ll call them back on my mobile.
Google Voice can support 2 phone numbers. That’s how my account is setup now. I think the deal is that the 2nd number must be ported from a mobile phone, which you can do from Ooma.
Thanks, ochotona. I have 3 numbers: real mobile for primary contacts, GV for disposable contacts, and OOMA for business. OOMA usage is fading out and replaced by real mobile but not entirely disappeared. It’s a bit tricky to keep 3 # alive. Maybe an auto-forward service for OOMA # will suffice.
For anyone who wants to get rid of the OOMA service but keep the number using GV:
You cannot port an Ooma number directly to Google Voice, because Ooma is a landline/VoIP provider and Google Voice only accepts ports from mobile carriers. To move your number, you must first port it to a temporary mobile carrier, wait about a week, and then port it from that mobile carrier to Google Voice.
We are in the same boat. Had Ooma Premium for years. Maybe I will check out VOIPLY. A note on a spam app. I just found Spam Fortress. It allows you to block by AREA CODE. I get a lot spam from the area code where my cell phone is even after we moved. You can block three area codes for free but I paid about $7 for it because the developer was so good with replies and answers. Whereas my phone used to ring for the spam call and then go to voicemail, NOW it does not even ring and there is no record of going to VM. You CAN check the call history if you think you missed an important call. I LOVE IT!
I ported my old personal and business landline phone numbers to callcentric many years ago. It cost me about $60/year for both combined. I can receive calls, texts and I can make outgoing calls. It requires a grandstream or old PAP2T adapter to connect internet to my phone set. I don’t use it much, but I didn’t want to lose the numbers that I’ve had for 25 years.
Problem with the spam blockers I’ve tried is that the spammers are getting new numbers almost every day, so the spam filters have a hard time tracking them.
Is it a couple of area codes? Spam Fortress would block those (up to 3 for free). No way you can block individual calls from computers. Not affiliated with Spam Fortress.
I pay the same amount , but we get spam calls from the only ones that have that landline number and that’s….wait for it…our own health insurance company. Crazy right?
You can port a number to Voip.Ms for free and they will charge about $1 a month for it to be there. You can have multiple voicemail account, time of day routing, Automated Attendant (Press 1 to …) etc. There are white and black lists too. You can configure an app on your cell phone to answer calls or make calls through that same hosted number. That can be great if you travel and have access to perhaps wifi there. You now have a US dialtone or can answer those calls when using the app.
From the price below shown in Voip.Ms, it looks like after porting your number, you will get very small charges for making or receiving calls, is that correct?
I have the basic plan… parking only, no outgoing calls. But yes, you could have a VOIP plan, I guess your PC or phone would be the speaker / microphone.
Yes, It is 85 cents a month and a penny a minute.. Hawaii was a bit more and Alaska is lots more.
Understand that if you receive a call and forward it to your cellphone that is a double hop, so perhaps 2 cents a minute. Decades ago phone company rounded up to the nearest minute so a 1 minute 1 second call was billed at 2 minutes. Voip.Ms bills in 6 second increments, so if you are only on for 30 seconds it would be 1/2 cent.
If you call another phone which is on their network, the call is free.
If you just want to park a number, 85 cents a month.
I purchased multiple Voip.Ms local ans other state numbers and also bought a few toll free numbers both vanity numbers (they spell something) and some generic numbers.
