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I received an email that the oOma iPhone app is ready.... it is 1.9 cents per minute

I thought Ok.... if I am away and have wi-fi, this might be ok..... Then I go to the iTunes app store and find out that the app is $9.99..... well forget that!!!

If I am going to be charged per minute... give me the app.... Charging for the app is going to limit it's customer base.

skypros wrote:I received an email that the oOma iPhone app is ready.... it is 1.9 cents per minute

I thought Ok.... if I am away and have wi-fi, this might be ok..... Then I go to the iTunes app store and find out that the app is $9.99..... well forget that!!!

If I am going to be charged per minute... give me the app.... Charging for the app is going to limit it's customer base.

If you have Premier the first 250 minutes per month are free.

FYI - Ooma Premier subscribers get 250 free minutes of domestic calling every month with Ooma Mobile.

murphy wrote:

skypros wrote:I received an email that the oOma iPhone app is ready.... it is 1.9 cents per minute

I thought Ok.... if I am away and have wi-fi, this might be ok..... Then I go to the iTunes app store and find out that the app is $9.99..... well forget that!!!

If I am going to be charged per minute... give me the app.... Charging for the app is going to limit it's customer base.

If you have Premier the first 250 minutes per month are free.

Ok but shouldn't they show up already in the account without having to add minutes?

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=8370

It doesn't make sense to me. If Ooma is going to charge for per minute using ooma app on top of app cost, why would some one use ooma app at first place to begin with ??. I am happy to continue with Google Voice application (http://voicecentral.riverturn.com/) which if FREE ... I would say Kiss m? a??

-F

Vonage has an app that's free and includes free calling - for $24.99 per month.

Yeah I don't get this pricing either. If it were $9.99 and I could then use it for free thereafter (much like the Ooma box), then I'd buy it. If it were free to download and then $.019 a minute to use thereafter, then I'd probably use it to make calls over wi-fi. The combination of both just seems ridiculous considering I could just download Skype for free and then pay $.021 a minute domestically. I'd have to talk for 5000 minutes to make up the $9.99 difference.

The really shady thing is that only the email from Ooma mentions the $.019 a minute rate for domestic calls using the app - there's no mention of this in the app store. It simply says that it "allows you to save up to 90% on domestic ... destinations". 90% of 0 is 0...not $.019. If I hadn't gotten or read the email and just looked at the app in the app store, paid the $9.99 and then found this out, I'd definitely have been PISSED.


The only excuse I could see making this remotely worth it would be that "if you have an iOS 4 multi-tasking compatible device, you can receive calls on your regular number." I don't even know if the app supports that though. Regardless, I use google voice to re-route calls to both my iPhone and Ooma, so I don't even think this would work for me, as I'm sure a regular phone call would over-ride a wi-fi phone call on the device.

bw1 wrote:Vonage has an app that's free and includes free calling - for $24.99 per month.

Right...Vonage admits in their pricing that no matter where a call comes from it costs the same to them.

Whether a call is originated from an Ooma hub, or from the iPhone app, they both get encrypted using the origination device and then passed to Ooma's servers. Ooma has fixed costs of their Internet pipe, and then incremental costs of the per minute fee to put the call through a regular phone line at the destination. No matter how the call originated, it's the same fees.

I can fully understand them charging a bit to cover app development, whether it's per minute, or for the app, but the combination of both when compared to alternatives like Skype on the iPhone is excessive to the point that I'm not going to pay it, and I can't imagine I'm the only one with this point of view.

If they are going to charge for the app up front ($9.99) then the US domestic calls should be free, just like my regular Ooma phone. There is no justification for the per-minute charge. We aren't using any more Ooma bandwidth than we would using the regular Ooma hub?

Not to mention it is annoying and totally opposite Ooma's pricing philosophy up till now, pay up front, and no per-call or per-month charges. I would have been happier to pay $20 for the app and avoid the hassle of keeping track of pre-paid minutes.

They could have made it free but required Premier subscription to use the app and I think we would have seen more complaints.

I see several good things:

It doesn't require Premier, but Premier gives you 250 minutes per month (about $4.75 worth).
Ooma Mobile to Ooma calls are free.
It works with any account - Telo or older Hub.