OOMA Concerns – More Insights
Jeff Peck from OOMA tried to answer some of the questions which I raised in my earlier post. Jeff, thanks for your time reading and answering the questions. However, IMO answers appear to be misleading, at least to me. Let me explain why.
Jeff> the ooma customer whose device is making the call is not selling the call or the device
Irrespective of a user getting paid for, it can definitely be classified as commercial usage and subleasing. 1) User is letting use OOMA their phone line which in turns a commercial company 2) User is getting services in exchange of letting OOMA use his or her phone line (see your answer). As I see it, the business model is based on infrastructure laid by someone else (telephone companies) and it is not wise to assume that they will not object without getting paid for. In fact, the first sufferer of such objection could be user itself.
Jeff> when a call is terminated through another user’s ooma Hub, caller ID is suppressed
Suppressing the caller ID is not supported on all the networks, it is moreover operator controlled and no way can OOMA have complete control over it. Also, irrespective of suppressing the caller ID, there always be call records and user can get into a trouble for any illegal usage of phone line by OOMA box. Now think of an exactly opposite situation where a user making an illegal call and claiming that it was made by OOMA box. It will be difficult to defend that situation.
Jeff> ooma has developed technology that detects attempts to listen-in to a call and prevents other ooma subscribers from listening to your calls (so it is more difficult, not simpler)
That’s wonderful; however unbelievable without any details. There are ways to detect phone tapping and ways to defeat detectors. Active and non-intrusive tapping is almost undetectable and well within the reach of normal users. Even if you can defeat those (which I believe is not possible), there could be other devices connected on line like parallel phone, answering machine and recorder which could be impacted by OOMA’s technology. In fact, by this, OOMA may make legitimate use of phone more difficult and impractical for customers.
Overall, in the world of terror in which we live, OOMA appears like an insecure (though innovative) solution. As far as I am concern, I will have strong concerns to let anyone use my phone line. Let me refer to a recent case where a guy was arrested for misuse of his phone by his brother and landed up in a big problem, well that’s an extreme case but possible. Irrespective of CALEA, it can be a big hassle for a user if a situation arises.
Good to see someone else who understands the techincal problems with OOMA. Certainly hope that Jeff Peck or someone else from OOMA, comes back with the truth.
I have a phone line that allows 30 local calls and 10 cents per call thereafter. Where does this leave me?
Well Dave, guess you’ll be paying 10 cents for every call that someone else makes using your line, or you have to get a more expensive phone line (unrestricted, and oh, by the way, with Call Forwarding on Busy) in order to “save” money using OOMA.
And note that OOMA only promises that your service will be “free” for 3 years.
I’ll bet that you’re smarrter than to fall for a deal like this.
And another technical note I may not have posted elsewhere: OOMA brags about their “unique” dial tone. That means it is non- standard and any device (e.g., Fax machine) that depends on dial tone detection in unlikely to work.
Since this post, ooma has gone through a ton of changes. I’d like to say for the better, but that’s not the case. It worries me to hear about so many high level people leaving the company. I just heard that they just made some more staff cuts because they’re havin’ a hard time payin’ their bills.
And their “free” service is no longer available. If you want those same features it’s $12.99 /month… might as well get home phone service from a larger, more reliable organization…
$13 /mo is not = Free…. DUH!
Those morons, I wonder what other false promises they’re going to make. Stay away… Buyer beware.
Re: $12.99/mo. Good luck getting that rate after taxes, tariffs, blah blah blah, on local service. WIth the aforementioned expenses, my old “larger, more reliable organization’s” $29.00 200min LD Srvc phone bill plan came to $49. At $200 for the Ooma box, that’s a four month payoff. I’ll take my chances that they’ll be around for that long.
Concerned with Privacy? It’d be much easier for me to walk out to the junction box at the corner and tap in manually then use a wireless transmitter to listen to what you’re saying. Not that I’ve done that