For years I saw ads from Cablevision… “The triple play” which is tv, internet, and phone for “one low price.” I was tempted. But not tempted enough. Then I saw the MagicJack. Interesting but it didn’t work well for me except when I was traveling.

One day I saw an ad for Ooma and I must say I was confused. The part that confused me was the free phone service. That doesn’t seem like a good way for a business to make money. Then again, Google makes money by giving it away. So I tried Ooma.

Telo Connects a phone to the internet.

These days all my business and home phones use Ooma and we love the price.

Here’s how our costs break down. We have three lines. Two are for business and one for home. One line is free. We pay an annual fee ( think about $130) for the other two. All calls within the US and Canada are free. Yep… free!

The phone quality has been great.

What’s the catch?

There are three. First, it depends on you having broadband internet service– either cable or fios. Second, when your internet goes down you have no phone service. That should be obvious but I was surprised to discover that some people didn’t realize that. And third, when you have more than one phone number it can be a bit difficult to setup everything and get it working.

That said, it works great!