Ooma Invades Canada, US Premier Subscribers Can Now Talk To Their Northern Cousins For Free

Matt Burns

Matt is a Senior Editor at TechCrunch. Matt Burns is a family man first and attempts to be a writer second. Born and raised in the heart of the automotive world, only cars eclipse his love of gadgets. He previously wrote for Engadget and EngadgetHD before moving into the party house that is TechCrunch. He learned the retail side of... → Learn More

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
canada-ooma

Ooma’s disruptive VoIP service is hitting Canada per an announcement Wednesday morning. Starting today, Canadian consumers can order the VoIP-in-a-box and place and receive phone calls to anyone within the wide expanse that is the great white north. That is, of course, if that person has plenty of room under their Internet cap.

The pricing scheme is just like that found in the States. The $229 CAD Ooma Telo device offers free basic telephony all by itself and for $9.99 a month, buyers can opt for the Premier service that offers features like call screening, three-way conferencing, call forwarding, and different ring tone options. Plus, Ooma is now allowing US Prime subscribers to place calls to Canada for free but it hasn’t been announced if it works the other way.

Ooma isn’t the first mass VoIP service to hit Canada; Vonage launched there in 2004. For better or worse, Ooma does VoIP differently by rolling in the cost of the service into the cost of the device rather than a traditional monthly bill like Vonage.

The current trend of Internet caps by Canadian ISPs might make some consumers think twice about moving their phone service to the Internet. However, VoIP services generally do not use that much bandwidth but it’s probably worth spending 10 minutes investigating how much data you’re currently consuming. You don’t want your Internet suddenly throttled while you’re talking to your Mom — or maybe you do.


Company: ooma
Website: ooma.com
Launch Date: January 1, 2004
Funding: $81.3M

Founded in 2004, Ooma offers a consumer electronics product that provides free, U.S. telephone calling and advanced telephony services utilizing a high-speed Internet connection and existing home phone. Ooma delivers outstanding HD call quality and the reliability of a traditional phone service at a fraction of the cost. The Ooma Mobile HD app allows customers to make U.S. and international calls from their Android, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch device. Ooma is available at more than 4,000 leading retailers...

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