My new telephone I

When I signed up for phone service at my current location, it was Southwestern Bell and the basic plan (yup, that's what I went for) was supposed to be a little less than $11 plus $0.75 for not being listed on the white pages. I added the DSL a couple years later, which is supposed to be $25 (yup, again, I have the cheapest plan). Nowadays it's AT&T and the phone bill? It rings up to $53 month! First, they raised my DSL to $28 without telling me, but really? I am paying $25 for my home phone every month? That's 3x what I pay for my cell phone, that's ridiculous.

So screw them, I got myself an Ooma. I got in the RadioShack deal: $159 + tax no shipping, and ushered my home into the voice over IP world, sweet.

I was careful to steer away from the Ooma Telo, which in itself isn't bad but charges an almost $4 monthly fee to cover tax and regulatory costs. I got myself the Ooma Core system instead, which includes the Ooma Hub and the Ooma Scout.

Right off the bet, the packaging is attractively designed. A matte black box.



The package reminds me of unboxing Apple products, only that Apple tend to use foams rather than clear plastics.





The unit itself is gray and white which somewhat looks eerily like my ancient Panasonic answering machine my brother got from Target.



But enough about looks... when it comes to phone services, we care about quality and we care about reliability, right?