Re: [PLUG] Oooma Home VOIP Phone

["Lee H. Marzke" <lee@marzke.net>]

I've been using Vitelity wholesale for at least 6 years with a FreePBX VM
and do minimal traffic shaping on my pfSense router VM.

This service is really low cost and designed for professional use with a PBX, but can also
route DID's to VOIP phone ( with per DID voicemail as a free option )  There are sub-accounts
so you can separate the billing of each DID if needed  ( for instance if you resell ).
The GUI is a bit geeky, and uses telco terminology like CNAM/LIDB , so it's definitely not for
your normal home user.   I'd say it's best for use with multiple DID's, multiple devices and users
and very low cost when you plan to have a PBX.

Compared to other services, many of them charge a minimum of $20/month for a 'line' with unlimited
calling etc. Even OOMA starts at $19.95/month per user.  The OOMA device also plugs inline between your
internet bridge and router, so it's a point of failure for Internet service so may be a concern
if you have servers locally.

With Vitelity wholesale, it's only it runs about $.50 to $1.50 / month per DID and 1.5c for outbound
to 2.4c /min for toll-free inbound while non toll-free inbound is free.   Fax is supported as a separate
fax DID ( fax to/from email ) so no fax machine is necessary.  So you can easily have multiple
DID's and/or a toll-free DID for very low cost.   Of course with FreePBX you also get music-on-hold,
conference lines, call parking, voicemail emails (as WAV files), etc. and no extra cost per line , or per user.

Vitelity supports s.MS texting and e911 and CNAM lookup
optionally for each DID for a small extra cost.  ( s.MS is a VOIP service provider that bridges
SMS texting to/from XMPP , and vitelity includes this for no extra cost )

I had sent an email a few weeks ago about using Viteilty's S.MS service ( My use case: I want to only
publish my toll-free DID as a single number to reach me at home/office or mobile , and also want that
same DID to support SMS to the phone or computer. I'd rather not publish my actual mobile FI phone
number )   So all inbound calls ring all my devices and mobile,  and since the calls run through
the PBX, I can park them on one device and pick up the call on another.

If your PBX is un-reachable,  there is optional forwarding of the call to a different number,  and email notification
of the failure to your email.

Lately , I've been using OpenCNAM.com for CallerID name lookups instead of Vitelity as they provide
much more consistent name lookups ( e.g instead of the caller name showing 'wireless caller' you
may get the actual name or city more often )    This costs something like 1/2 cent per call. 

Viteilty's been rock solid for me for years.

For phones I'm using Panasonic KX-TGP550 SIP DECT Phone with wireless remotes, and a Google FI mobile phone.
Note that the Panasonic unit is a SIP base with DECT to handset,  not normal DECT.

A note:  I had a problem with Spam calls on my home line, but after adding an announcement "This call may be monitored or recorded"
prior to ringing,  all the spam calls now hang up after one ring.  I suspect the caller is not hearing this , but the
auto-dialer just gets confused with voice occurring prior to ringback.

Lee





----- Original Message -----
> From: "Casey Bralla" <MailList@NerdWorld.org>
> To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <PLUG@Lists.PhillyLinux.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2018 8:19:21 AM
> Subject: [PLUG] Oooma Home VOIP Phone

> I've been using vonage for years, but am looking at other lower-cost
> systems.   The Ooma seems good, but am wondering if anyone on the list
> can relate their experiences with VOIP providers.
> 
> 
> TIA!
> 
> --
> 
> Casey Bralla
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
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-- 
"Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion..." - Kryptos 

Lee Marzke, lee@marzke.net http://marzke.net/lee/ 
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug