# Forget DTV; FCC now planning "all-IP" phone transition



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Forget DTV; FCC now planning "all-IP" phone transition.

*The writing is on the wall for old school circuit-switched phone networks, and the world is going all-IP. Now, the FCC is gathering data to guide the next major transition of the country's communications network.*

-- Tom


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I hope they don't let the government run it!


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

Wow, I didn't see this coming. I'm a fan of my land line and don't want to give it up. 

Peace...


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

I switched over to verizon FiOS a year ago, but kept one of my two land lines and ditched the other which I had used solely for local and long distance calling while using my current line for dial-up which requires use of the FiOS circuit back to the Public switched network bits at the local Central Office. Oh, and one other thing, with the current setup - the old dial-up does not work as it did before the switch.

-- Tom


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I have Verizon FiOS and no copper lines any more. AAMOF, the fiber is the connection for my Internet, phone, and TV nowadays. I still have the Comcast coax buried out there if I get tired of Verizon.


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

lotuseclat79 said:


> Oh, and one other thing, with the current setup - the old dial-up does not work as it did before the switch.


Do you mean it doesn't work at all now?

Peace...


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## Mumbodog (Oct 3, 2007)

Time to switch to Ham radio's


.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I have had my phone over the cable from 7/2008 to this day and it works great. 
With comcast you go to your online email and you get the voice mail also.
It keeps a record for so many months of all calls coming and going that is nice but it will not let you print it. 
I say all calls too because if you dial one number and hang up it shows up so every thing shows up and all the miss dial numbers etc are listed.

I then got an Ooma Phone at Costco. 
http://www.ooma.com/products
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Produc...=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1
Wow costco has the newer one that ooma has.
I got the Hub. http://www.ooma.com/products/ooma-hub

The newer Ooma Telo has this added plus it looks smaller and cooler looking.
and these...
http://www.ooma.com/products/ooma-telo/compare

A one time cost if you do not need the Premier Service so you never need pay a phone bill again as long as you have high speed cable or DSL or FiOS like some lucky people like John. 

Dect 6.0 Support for Ooma Telo Handset
Get superb sound quality, security and range without interfering with your Wi-Fi network or other home electronics.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hi hewee,

Ooma sounds interesting. So, if I understand what you posted, the way Ooma compares to say magic-jack is that with magic-jack, all you need to do is bear both the one-time cost of it, and then the cost of keeping your Windows-only PC on 24/7, while with Ooma one would need to bear the one-time cost and then the cost of the Internet service per month, plus the cost of keeping your router (like on FiOS) energized with electricity 24/7 - if you want to luxury of being woken up while asleep overnight instead of turning off the router to conserve on electricity, eh?

-- Tom


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

lotuseclat79 said:


> if you want to luxury of being woken up while asleep overnight instead of turning off the router to conserve on electricity, eh?


I would imagine you would be able to turn off the Ooma device and not the router to prevent calls from coming in at odd hours. Or just turn off the ringer on the phone. 

Are you familiar with Vonage? It sounds like Ooma uses a similar approach to Vonage except the up-front cost is higher but the long term cost is less.

Peace...


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

The Ooma does not need a computer like magic-jack does.

Now they show how to hook it up more then one way but I was doing the in the booklet but you could not pass the Shields UP! test.
I found another way from a thread in there forum.

http://www.ooma.com/products/ooma-telo/setup
That is how I got it setup now and they never showed that way before so good that they show it like that because your pass the Shields UP! test.

So you get the one time cost to run the Ooma Telo or Ooma Hub and then the Premier Service gives you more things and lets you add a Ooma Scout that came with my Ooma Hub. This lets you have another phone line with another number.

I got Ooma Premier free for 6 months but never added the 2nd Ooma Scout but did get the rest of the Ooma Premier till the six months runs out.
It is just me so no real need for more phone lines and numbers.

So you got your pick and if you want the cheap way then then go without the Ooma Premier. Your get it free to start so check it out.

One odd thing was checking my account was it was going into a loop and I had a hard time seeing the messages because it was listing 1000's of messages when there was really only the one Welcome message. I called and they cleared it but I tested later and was able to find out what was going on. I had to clear all messages from the phone and not the web site. 
What was going on is I blockl flash with NoScript and if I want to see it I click the place holder and the web page reloads and the flash shows up. But I could not do that at the Ooma account because it keep trying to reload the player to say welcome(does this each time you go to your account) but it could not load because it was blocked and I could not get things to stop acting up and had to use WinPatrol to close firefox. 
So if I let flash run so it is not blocked before going to my account all works OK.

Then if the power goes out you may have to go tru the reseting of the phone, router etc to get the phone started again. I had to do that once.

But no phone bill so that's great. 
What is does can save some a lot of money that have more then one phone line in the house. Or Work, Family and kid phones in the house. You just add a Ooma Scout for each new phone number.

Oh yea you can with Ooma Premier you can use you phone number at another place too. So if you got two homes you can have one phone number. Not sure just how it works. Maybe you say ring here or there at my summer home. 
See See how others are using Ooma
Watch this here and then click the other tabs.
http://www.live.ooma.webcollage.net...e&MarkupType=document&PresentationFormat=html
and 
http://www.liveclicker.com/componen...9&LCTB_iframe=true&tb_height=413&tb_width=558
More info
http://www.ooma.com/blog/
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/#34106263
The part you want to see starts at 3:00 Min's into the clip.
Find a Live Demo

Darn I can make money somehow I think. Let me check the email I get from Ooma. 
Yes 


> Ooma Refer a Friend Program
> 
> Dear Ooma Customer,
> 
> ...


I never went to the links in bold because I no friends to give one to.
But hey I do not want to post anything but if someone really wants to buy the phone then PM me and I will get the "My Ooma Refer a Friend" thing started. Darn I got to find my password to get to the page to see just what it wants to know. 
But Costco I think has the best price or it did back when I got mine.
Wish I waited to get the newer Ooma Telo with "Ooma HD Voice ready" but hey it still works. 
Find a Live Demo

One thing is in this room I have a phone jack in the wall but it is not hooked up. I have a cordless That base is in the kitchen and the hand sets are in other rooms. 
I have not hooked it up to see if I can run it off using the same Ooma number. Ooma has a Home out jack so you can plug it in the home and all other jacks hooked to that same jack will ring. 
No need to get the Ooma Telo Handset but it looks like there phone does more things.

*Mods* 
If this is wrong posting about the *"My Ooma Refer a Friend"* then please edit out that part of the thread. 
I know I could get money but the friend would get twice as much in savings. Not sure how or where to but to get savings. But I am just posting info on the phone like I have many other times here and only added the "My Ooma Refer a Friend" because I got the email the other day or week.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

The phone ringing when your sleeping would be like any other phone no matter how you got it hooked up.
Turn off the phone that you got hook up to the Ooma or turn down the ringer on the phone.


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

One thing I forgot to ask, in the sense that magic-jack has its own network, is that what Ooma has too?

-- Tom


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

lotuseclat79 said:


> One thing I forgot to ask, in the sense that magic-jack has its own network, is that what Ooma has too?
> 
> -- Tom


I would thing so because just like any phone company they have to have some type of network even if they sub it out or sub out part of it.

Call or Email them and ask. 
http://www.ooma.com/support/contact-us

http://www.ooma.com/support/faqs
Looks like "limit of 5000 minutes per month (for outbound calling)"
That's 83.3 hours a month. 
Is there a maximum amount of minutes per month?
Read this below also and your be OK if your a Home user and not a businesses user that the service does not want. 
"Vonage has the same limit for residential service of 5000 minutes per month."
Knowledgebase
Do Scout's work with Telo's? No
So it's not the same so read other info on that page and call and ask them. 
The Telo is newer and was not out when I got mine.

If you go online you can play and or download any messages or move them around to folders like email.

OK I got logged into my account. Had to redo the password manager to remember again because they changed the site some so it would not bring anything up.
I have not been there is months and see the first call made are not listed in the history. But guess it is like comcast where I think the history goes back 3 months. 
Well the Premier, Free Trial of mine has 16 more days. Not going to change the phone any for the way I use it. Plus I was not even using what was in the Premier to start with but just had it.

On the Refer a Friend I have 3 codes.
Your friend will get $50 off the Ooma Telo so guess it is only on the Ooma Telo. 
Oomas Unlimited Home Phone Service?



> Ooma Scout
> 
> Extend the power of Ooma to another phone jack in your home with the Ooma Scout device. The Ooma Scout has the same interface and gives you access to all the features that you have on the Ooma Hub.
> 
> ...


So you can see a family can get 4 Scout's and then have 4 phone numbers. May go over the limit if you got a teen age girl that is always on the phone.  
Not sure if you need a Ooma Premier for each Ooma Scout or just one Ooma Premier for up to 4 Scout's.

Plus like the voice mail or some other parts of the Premier that you will not get unless you pay for it after the Free Trial is over you may be able to get on your phone. 
Just set up your phone to kick in before Ooma does.
Like leave message could get left on your phone if it is made to start a ring sooner then the Ooms recorder.

Now if you got comcast or not you could call them to see what deals they have and try it out. They will give you a modem/phone box you plug your phone in. It has 2 phone jacks but only one works because the 2nd one you got to pay more. Be be a way to test how you like the cable or DSL if you get it from AT&T on a phone.

I think the Ooma Premier does more then it did when I started. 
I would have to look over my booklets to see but it does not matter because it does more and anything it does now is what your get.

Here is a Sun Jave "VoIP Speed Test - Broadband Bandwidth Test - Broadband Jitter Test"


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