Port Disaster

[southsound]

I agree with WayneDSR. I love my ooma system but I still recommend a separate landline for times when any VOIP solution is down. My cell phone works in my front yard but not in the house, so I understand your pain. You mentioned your young son and also a disability. Our children are grown (our youngest, 32 is visiting with us as I type) but I have a heart condition and would feel very unsafe without access to reliable 911 service. I used to have two lines when I was on dialup. In January, our island got DSL! I did some research and discontinued the second line and my $20 per month long distance plan. And in February I bought the ooma system.

For me things were rocky for a while. We had some terrible echo, but ooma worked with me to make things great. We are saving enough every month that in just 6 months the ooma is totally paid for and after that I have FREE long distance and FREE second line as long as I have the ooma. For my situation, not a bad deal.

My personal recommendation would be to keep a very basic landline in addition to the ooma system. You could either keep the two separate as I chose to do or you can "integrate" your landline with the ooma. The least costly is to keep them separate since you don't need to pay for any extra features on the landline. I use two separate cordless phone systems for our setup. If you integrate the landline with your ooma, you need to pay the telco for call forward busy.

Often, depending on your situation, you can get a basic landline for very little cost. They call it lifeline service in our locality, but it may have a different name where you are. It would be an ideal failsafe in case of an emergency.

There are a lot of great people on this forum. Sometimes we view things a little differently from a poster, but deep down, we're here because we want YOUR ooma experience to be a good one. I hope things work out for you and your experience can help someone else in a positive way.

[Boondocs]

I HAVE a cell phone. It doesn't work anywhere within miles of my home.

I DID keep my phone number and I DID ask all the right questions..

So then why port your number? Ooma gives you a new number and you can rely on your home telephone as your 911 service.

finally get notice and a FRIENDLY reminder that I'll lose my service if my DSL is on my phone number when the number is ported!?!

If I read this correctly you ported your number and ooma sent you a letter(email) saying they are going to cut your service. If so tell them to cancel the port and keep your landline and DSL.

I understand your frustrations but if you have an internet connection and google abut porting you could have known about this issue.

If ooma did not tell you about the loss of your DSL service then shame on the tech support person for not explaining that to you.

Again when you are looking for a new service do other research other then just the company itself.

Oh and one last thing... how did i read your original post wrong? You never said anything about speaking directly to tech support while setting up your ooma nor did you say you had a cell or that it does not work in your area. Also you never said you planned on keeping you home telephone which still leads me to the question of why are you porting the number anyways if you are relying on it for 911 service?