Ooma is known as one of the main residential VoIP services in the US providing unlimited local phone service without any bill at the end of the month. This business model has been proving itself worthy with a huge customer response. Ooma has now launched its service for businesses, small businesses more particularly. Ooma Office targets businesses with typically up to around 10 people.

Ooma Office is not a no-monthly-bill service, but it offers what it takes to equip a small business with adequate corporate communication capabilities.

It has an acquisition cost and a monthly fee, and fees for additional equipment and features, but it is definitely less expensive that other full-fledged products like Adtran Netvanta, Phonality PBXtra or even Vonage’s business plan and the likes.

Requirements

You actually don’t require much. There is no need for a network or expensive hardware. Whatever extra VoIP-related equipment you will require will be shipped to you by Ooma. Other than that, you need an ADSL Internet line that has bandwidth sufficient enough for concurrent data and phone traffic. Available Internet services are largely sufficient.

You can use your existing traditional analog phones, and can even buy some cheap models if you don’t want much functionality on the input/output end. You don’t require any kind of wiring, except for the UTP RJ-11 cable (don’t be freaked, it is the simple phone cable) between your ADSL port to your Ooma router. The router connects to all other devices through Wi-Fi. You can however have wired extensions, if for example, you have a fax machine to connect.

The Cost

All that Ooma offers you can get with other services, but the main advantage here is the price. The total cost of ownership is considerably low compared to other services.

You first have to sign up for the service at around $250 which is a one-time payment. This comes with the Ooma Base Station, which is in fact a wireless router, and two Ooma Linx devices. These devices connect to the base station wirelessly and themselves connect to traditional analog phones. So at the start, you can have at least 3 extensions. You can add more extensions by buying more Ooma Linx devices at $50 each.

Then comes the monthly fee, which is $20. With it, you have unlimited free calls to the US and Canada, along with the free features, including a free phone line. You can buy additional lines at $20 each, in order to make sure that you have enough lines to avoid missing any customer call. Each phone line you buy allows you to have a direct number in an area code of your choice. So, you can have for one business different phone numbers with different area codes. You need to add taxes and usual additional costs to the monthly bill.

The Features

Calling Features. As mentioned above, unlimited calls to any phone (and not just VoIP phones) in the US and Canada. International calls are also possible seamlessly, at Ooma rates, which are comparable to the most competitive ones on the market. As with all VoIP systems, you have caller ID. There is also E911 service, which is generally not very much compatible with VoIP. So if Ooma offers it, it is definitely a plus, but you need to take the issue of its reliability with a grain of salt.

The setup is easy, and installation can be DIY stuff. There is no wiring required as the devices connect through Wi-Fi. The phone number you receive can be ported, that is you can have the same phone number you use currently from another phone service, at no additional cost. Phone number portability is indeed quite suitable here as you don’t want to have to notify everyone about a change in number. Your Ooma number can also be listed in the phone directory. Moreover, Ooma ensures customers of 24/7 support.

Office Features. There is a virtual receptionist, a voice-off which greets callers and directs them to other extensions and sections. You can configure it for different behavior at business hours and after hours. Then there are a bunch of basic features like call transfer, group ringing, music on hold, conference bridge hosting up to five participants on conference calls, and most importantly voicemail.

Mobility Features. You can extend the use of your Ooma Office system to employees on the move over their mobile devices with features like ringing their phones as well as office phones when someone calls, call forwarding, voicemail forwarding and virtual extensions. It is worthy to mention here Ooma’s mobile app for Android and iOS for mobile users, which you can install on your mobile workers’ devices. The app costs around $10.

Voice Quality. Ooma has its own HD Voice technology, which uses codecs to enhanced voice quality during calls and at the same time compress the voice data transmitted (remember the calls are channeled on IP networks digitally) so as to decrease the bandwidth consumed on a call.

Ooma Office Manager. This is a web interface that allows you to configure and manage your account. For example, you can tweak your virtual office assistant to customize your greeting, key press assignments, call transfer, etc. You can also check your voicemail and handle the other features.

Features Lacking. There are some features that would do well in a business VoIP plan. I believe Ooma Office would be just great if it could offer call recording features, plus some other features of a PBX. Also, there could be toll free numbers, which are important for many businesses in the customer-business interface.