The VOIP Provider Guide

Even with the recent implosion of Sun Rocket, a VoIP service that boasted more than 200,000 users, and the soon to be collapse of Vonage, a service that at one time trumpeted the arrival of the next generation of telephone technology, startup company Ooma is poised to make the jump into the market with a  fresh take on phone service.

Their “new take” on phone service involves combining the solid security of land line telephone service and the less expensive, more versatile technology of VoIP into a single service with a one-time fee of only $399. To be sure, services like Packet 8 and Vonage have a varying degree of advantage over traditional phone service. The bills are cheaper, the service more versatile and the calls equally as clear.

However, the reliance on electricity, poor emergency services and unknown quantities of a startup company in a crowded market have kept many people firmly attached to their landline service. With Ooma, the option to obtain both the security and safety of a landline with the versatility of VoIP is on the horizon.

Basically, you make a single one-time payment and receive your Ooma hub. This machine works as a central connection to your landline, phone and computer. You keep your phone number and get a new digital number for use on your computer and remote calling access. To be fair, the initial payment is a large investment, but Ooma is banking on the fact that you will never pay another monthly bill, except for the monthly emergency service fees levied by your local government.

Okay, it sounds great right? Well, the technology being used to get all of this accomplished at such an amazingly low cost is not quite as great as we could hope. The call routing system encased in that Ooma hub is actually a simple P2P network interface. P2P has been around for a while now and is recognized as the ideal method of transferring files. However, it is also recognized for a complete lack of built in security and infamously poor ability to stop attacks.

The calls from other users are routed through each hub in each Ooma customers home; therefore anyone within the Ooma network could gain access to your hub if they had the time, malice and ability. There is no current way to know for sure that Ooma’s claims about the hub’s security will actually pan out.

For now, Ooma is engaging in a preliminary beta process to ensure their product works as they’ve advertised it. It looks as though the product will hit the market sometime in the coming 3 to 4 months, however it is still unknown how well it will perform and whether Ooma will, as they’ve claimed, be able to control the P2P traffic routed through each hub. If it does though, their service is an interesting concept that could very well open up a new avenue for VoIP services that are having trouble staying afloat in a crowded, cost riddled market.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 10:23 am and is filed under VOIP Provider Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.