One of the standout piece of consumer electronics I have discovered over the past few years is the Ooma phone system. The system brings an unusual business model to the business of phone service. Instead of charging a monthly fee Ooma sells the hardware that connects to your high-speed internet service and then lets you have your phone service for free. Sure they sell a number of useful accessories and there are some value-adding services to which you can subscribe (Ooma Premier is one of them and is totally worth the price) but you don’t HAVE to do so to get the value out of an Ooma system. Here’s our review of the Ooma Telo and some of the additional services.
The first piece of Ooma news involves their Bluetooth adapter. The adapter, which we have previously covered, lets your home phone and cell phone work together. As the company explains,
With the Bluetooth Adapter for the Ooma Telo, you can merge your two phones into one seamless system.
The adapter lets you:
Multiply Your Ring: When your cell phone is paired with the Ooma Telo, incoming calls on your cell phone will also ring on all your home phones. Pick up the nearest phone to check the caller-ID and answer the call.
Go Hands-free: Use your Bluetooth headset to make and receive calls – even transfer a call in progress to your headset at a touch of a button (Ooma Telo Handset required)
Transfer the Call: Talking on the phone as you walk in your door? Park your cell phone on the charger, transfer the call to your home phone and pick up where you left off.
In other words, with the adapter your cellphone calls can be “fed” to your Ooma system you can make and receive calls without having to have the cellphone right there with you. You can also use your Ooma system with a Bluetooth headset and transfer a call-in-progress from your Ooma Telo Handset at the touch of a button.
The adapter supports pairing with up to seven devices which means anyone in the house can leave their cellphone charging and, when a call comes in, simply pick up any of the Ooma handsets to take the call.
None if this is news as the adapter has been out for some time.
What is news is that, while previously, the Bluetooth Adapter was only available to Ooma Premier subscribers, Ooma has made it available to ALL Ooma Telo users. (It does not work with the original Ooma system.) The adapter is just $29.99 and is worth every penny. If you have an Ooma Telo system it is a must-have add-on.
The second piece of news extends the usefulness and flexibility of the Ooma Telo by letting you cut the cords. Ooma is rolling out a $49.99 WiFi adapter that lets you put the Ooma Telo base anywhere in your home or office that has a good wireless signal. Why does this matter? Simple, until now the Ooma Telo needed to be physically connected to your internet service for it to work. That’s all good and well if your modem or router is in a convenient location but if, like me, you keep it in the closet or you don’t have access to it at all (think dorm room) you couldn’t use the system. With the new WiFi adapter current Ooma users have increased flexibility and people for whom getting an Ooma system was not an option now can. Here’s what the company has to say about it.
Do you love your Ooma, but wish that it could be in a different location than your modem or router? If you’ve been wanting to move your Telo into a more convenient location, the new Ooma Telo Wireless Adapter is the answer you’ve been waiting for!
Set up your Telo in the place that works best for YOU
Listen to voicemail and engage advanced features where it is most convenient
Install Ooma in dorm rooms, apartments, and other locations without a wired Internet connection
Take your Telo with you when you travel to call for FREE wherever you have Wi-Fi
Easy set up will have you talking wirelessly in minutes
Thanks to Ooma PureVoice™ technology, you’ll continue to enjoy crystal-clear phone calls over your wireless connection. PureVoice helps optimize call quality, even over less reliable connections like Wi-Fi.
We were briefed on the new adapter some time ago and took particular note of the fact that, while the adapter connects to your wireless network the technology built into it will actually improve the quality of the call over and above what your network would provide. With my home wireless system being a bit “funky” at times this is a huge deal!
The adapter is $49.99. Pre-orders have been temporarily suspended and will resume on September 20.
You can learn all about the Ooma Telo and the various additions to it here on the Ooma website.