Summary of ooma issues from around the net

Security and privacy:

• Rich Tehrani


• Yusuf Motiwala


• Daily Payload


• Dameon (PhoneBoy)


• Markus Göbel


• Andy Abramson


• Editors note: this list is getting far too long to maintain. Try searching for "ooma concerns" "ooma dangerous" etc.

Billing and Phone Company Hassles:

• Andy Abramson and the ooma EULA


• No Rooma For Ooma - a "white rabbit" yanks the ooma cord


• VoIPPlanet - setting up ooma is as much of a pain as moving


• NewsFactor Network - ooma adds roughly $10 a month to the local phone bill


• BusinessWeek - The ooma Headache "Glad my test drive was free. I wouldn't fork over $399"


• Bruce Fryer - ooma's math doesn't compute


• Cnet - it was a pain to install - our long-distance fees are paid mostly to cell phone companies, so I'm not eager to pay $400 up front to get rid of long land-line distance bills which I don't have

Technical and Sound Quality:

• BusinessWeek - the most annoying part of using ooma is the ooma dialtone, heard by both callers AND call recipients


• atmasphere.net - audible buzzing sound on calls, caller ID doesn't work


• Aswath Rao - technical reasons why ooma won't work

Reviews

The following are some of the web sites commenting on Ooma which appear to be written by people who understand telephony and the issues that Ooma faces. While there are numerous web sites making positive statements about Ooma, they appear to be doing so solely on unfounded expectations and lack of actual information about how Ooma works. The most believable positive things that anyone has said are about how "The hardware is elegant." (I apologize if some of these links no longer work.)

• TMCnet - "Ooma Goes Booma?" July 19
  
• O'Reilly - "Ooma - Huh?" July 19
  
• ValleyWag - "Why Ooma is dooma'd" July 19
  
• Unbound Spiral - "Ooma Will Blow $27 Million" July 19
  
• Saunder's Log - "Ooma? Om my ..." July 19
  
• Zoli's Blog - "I was an Ooma White Rabbit for Ten Minutes" July 19
  
• The PhoneBoy Blog - "Why Ooma is Dangerous" July 19
  
• Broadband Reports - "Ooma Promises 'Free' Voice (Assuming you think $399 + landline is free, and assuming it works" July 19
  
• IP Democracy - "Oh Boy, Just What We Need, Another VoIP Provider" July 19
  
• Aswath Weblog - "Ooma? No Ma" July 19
  
• Realtime Community - "Oompa Loompa Oooma" July 19
  
• Tech Republic - "New VoIP company OOMA offers free calling ... forever?" July 19
  
• Markus Goebel's Tech News - "Why Ooma is a security risk" July 20
  
• TECHdodo - "Ooma does what now?" July 20
  
• ITWire - "Ooma an exercise in futility" July 20
  
• Broadband Reports - "Ooma Idea Not so Original - and four times more expensive than alternative" July 20
  
• VoIP Watch - "The ooma EULA Has Me Very, Very, Very Concerned and You Should Be Too" July 28
  
• Tech Untangled - "Concerns about Ooma" July 22
  
• Heavy Reading - "Ooma Takes Aim with VoIP Device" July 23
  
• Disruptive Telephony - "Ooma, ooma, ooma ... a collection of links about the buzz" July 25
  
• Saunderslog - "Andy says 'no thanks' to Ooma" July 29
  
• VoIP News - "The Mixed Reaction to Ooma's Internet Calling Box" July 31
  
• Yusif Motiwala - "Ooma Concerns - More Insights" August 2
  
• Business Week - "ooma: First Thoughts" August 6
  
• Fierce VoIP - "ooma's no free ride" August 13
  
• Techcraver - "Trying to figure out Ooma" August 14
  
• VoIPPlanet - "Ooma: Oh My!" August 15
  
• Business Week - "The ooma Headache" August 16
  
• VoIPPlanet - "Ooma: My White Rabbit Days" August 24
  

The list of such sites grows every day. I provide the above as a small sample of concerns expressed by people from many walks of life to ensure potential users can make an informed decision before using ooma.