Ooma Offers Free VoIP Calls… After Purchase of Hardware
A new competitor will soon be available to those in the market for VoIP phone service and they’ve got a unique pricing model that might appeal to those of you who talk on the telly a lot.
Ooma, a new startup which boasts the involvement of “Creative Director” Ashton Kutcher (yes, that Ashton Kutcher), offers free VoIP calls for life after you purchase their Linux-based device and hook it into your phone lines and Interweb connection. The catch is the device will cost $399.
Where Ooma is different on the technology end is instead of using standard telephone exchanges to route service, the Ooma service routes calls through other Ooma users’ landlines (if available). This isn’t something you’d really notice though, because the Ooma service intelligently routes your own calls around any use of your line.
TechCrunch has more details on the Ooma service including a podcast interview with CEO Andrew Frame and Kutcher. Also, CNET’s got one writer’s experience setting up an Ooma box for himself, calling the experience “so-so”.