TMCnews Featured Article

November 02, 2011

Ooma Expands into Canadian Market, Offers Telo and Free HD Voice Calling

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

The Canadian market will soon have access to free, HD-quality home phone service. Ooma has announced it is expanding into the Canadian market, enabling Canadians to purchase the Ooma Telo and immediately enjoy crystal-clear calls to any phone number within the country. This move also expands free calling to Canada for Ooma U.S. customers as well.

Considered an innovation in free communication technology the Ooma Telo plugs into a high-speed Internet connection and existing home phone to enable free phone calls. The Telo offers bundled features such as caller ID, voicemail, call waiting and 911 service. Once the Ooma Telo is purchased, customers only pay required taxes and fees.

The Ooma Telo offers a strong value proposition in that it easily pays for itself within six months, based on an average phone bill of $40 per month. Customers can save more than $200 in the first year and more than $600 in two years, and $2,000 in five years, according to Ooma.

“Since Ooma began offering free home phone service in the U.S. with the Ooma Telo, our subscriber base has grown quickly, doubling in the last year alone,” said Eric Stang, Chief Executive Officer at Ooma, in a statement.

“We’ve received frequent requests to bring Ooma to Canada because of the high cost of phone service there and we anticipate a healthy level of interest in eliminating expensive monthly phone bills. Free home phone service, outstanding voice quality and advanced features are an unbeatable combination,” said Stang.

The superior call quality inherent in the Ooma Telo is due to the PureVoice HD technology offered in the platform. PureVoice HD is a bundle of five technologies, such as adaptive redundancy to prevent stuttered or garbled voice quality due to packet loss. The Ooma Telo prevents this loss on the Internet connection, automatically sending redundant packets to boost call clarity.

PureVoice HD also offers advanced voice compression to reduce bandwidth consumption by as much as 60 percent compared with standard VoIP technology. This compression enables the Telo to better withstand packet loss without degrading the voice quality. Added wire-speed QoS ensures the Ooma Telo can prioritize voice packets without slowing the network, delivering crystal-clear calls.

All calls using PureVoice HD are encrypted with government-grade encryption technology, making Ooma Telo conversations more secure than the traditional landline. Call fidelity is doubled with HD voice technology as twice the speech information is captured compared with a standard voice call, ensuring all conversations deliver lifelike sound.

Ooma Premier is available for $9.99 per month, offering customers advanced features such as call forwarding, call screening, 911 notifications, three-way conferencing, multi-ring option and distinctive ringtones. An existing phone number can be selected at no additional charge, or customers can port their existing phone number for a one-time fee of just $39.99. Affordable international rates are available and calls made between Ooma devices throughout the world are always free.

Cost conscious Ooma customers can save even more by leveraging their Ooma account on the go and completing phone calls over any WiFi or 3G network with the Ooma Mobile HD app, compatible with any Android (News - Alert) device, iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The app is available for a one-time $9.99 fee.

Cost-conscious users can purchase the Ooma Telo now available at Amazon.ca and London Drug in Canada. M.S.R.P. on the device is $229.99 CAD. Purchase includes a one-year limited warranty, a 30-day money back guarantee and a free 60-day trial of the Ooma Premier service. Phone (News - Alert)-based customer service is available live in both French and English.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi

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