Hi,
I am trying to help my parents curb telco expenses. They are currently spending $65-70/month on Verizon service for landline only. We already have a decent cable internet connection (ADSL is atrocious) and there is no Verizon Fiber in sight so it does not make sense to bundle services.

I would like to port their number to a VOIP provider where they can use the line to receive calls and make any calls locally and domestically.

Two products that I have identified that seemed to work well

1. Ooma Telo Free Home Phone service
2. OBi 100 VoIP Telephone adapter


The requirements for the above are:
1. Seamless integration to the existing cordless phones in the house
2. Easy installation - I am located abroad so I will need to help them set this up remotely (e.g. Logmein)

In addition to the above we need a decent SIP / VOIP provider. The requirements for this are:
1. Ability to port the existing number
2. Good quality of service
3. Inclusive US and Canada domestic calls

Any experiences to the above would be helpful.

Many thanks!

As nice as the OBi units are, they are not entirely designed for the amateur. I've had Ooma for years - highly recommend it. Installation is as simple as can be.

I set up Ooma four months ago. I was impressed with the excellent clear installation instructions. And there's an online board which I like reading.

I have two older Panasonic cordless phones which work just fine with Ooma. I expect to recoup the outlay in 12 months.

Porting was easy and again, well explained

US calls included; Canada - $ 0.014 or a plan ...

Sylvia

formerly AT&T, California, Comcast cable internet

I just set up two Obis over Christmas. I found instructions here that gave good step-by-step instructions for how to set it up with Google Voice and how to get 911 services. On the user end, the plugs for phone, router, and power are clearly marked, everything worked and it was easy to do.

Have been running an obi setup for a while, I am a techie so enjoy tinkering. Free VoIP calls through Google for 2013 and you can setup a backup VoIP provider like callcentric. Works well !!!

So these are both phone adapters? Sorry, I am not very technically savy.

what would be the pros/ cons of using one of these adapters and google voice versus one of the monthly service fee providers? Would it just be upfront cost versus monthly cost & possibly different qualities of service?

Why do you need to pay monthly fee when you can get it for free? Just set it up once and forget about it. Get Obi, it's easy, if you can read the instruction, you'll be set.

As for provider, I'm very happy w/ the porting Voip.MS offers (assuming they're keeping their #).

Since this is just resurrecting an old thread, I'm a-gonna close it.