TORONTO and PALO ALTO, CA – U.S. VoIP provider Ooma is expanding its home phone service into Canada promising free calls with no monthly service fees.
Beginning Wednesday, users can make free calls to any phone number in Canada after buying the Ooma Telo device which plugs into a high-speed Internet connection and existing home phone to provide calls and features such as voicemail, caller ID, call waiting and 911 service.
After the initial $230 purchase, customers pay only applicable taxes and fees. The company said that the Ooma Telo delivers “superior call quality” because of its PureVoice HD technology, a bundle of five technologies that help ensure a high level of clarity and more natural-sounding conversations including advanced voice compression and adaptive redundancy to overcome any signal degradation.
“We’ve received frequent requests to bring Ooma to Canada because of the high cost of phone service and we anticipate a healthy level of interest in eliminating expensive monthly phone bills”, said CEO Eric Stang, in Wednesday’s announcement. “Free home phone service, outstanding voice quality and advanced features are an unbeatable combination. Since Ooma began offering free home phone service in the U.S. with the Ooma Telo nearly three years ago, our subscriber base has grown quickly, doubling in the last year alone.”
The Ooma Telo is currently available at Amazon.ca and London Drug, and includes a one-year limited warranty, a 30-day money back guarantee and a free 60-day trial of Ooma Premier service including free calls to the U.S. from Canada.
Customers also have the option to choose a new home phone number for free (from 28 Canadian area codes) or to port their existing phone number for a one-time fee of $39.99. Annual subscribers to the Ooma Premier service, which costs $9.99 a month and includes features like call screening, three-way conferencing, call forwarding, blacklisting, 911 notifications, distinctive ringtones and a multi-ring option so home and cell phones ring at once, can port an existing home phone number at no additional charge.
Ooma also offers an international calling plan to 61 countries for about a penny per minute, though calls made between Ooma devices anywhere in the world are free. The company is also offering a wireless adapter, a Bluetooth adapter, and an app that enables calls over any Wi-Fi or 3G network.
