Jerry,
And the fact that it can be used to power multiple lines throughout the
entire house is cool too,
Did you mean multiple phones throughout the house or multiple lines? The
method I mentioned allows multiple phones to be connected but they all share
the same number, ring at the same time, and can only carry on one
conversation at a time unless you count call waiting as two conversations.
IOW, it will act pretty much exactly like a POTS line in that regard.
Ooma also has the ability to have two distinct conversations going on at the
same time (what they term an "instant second line"), which could be great if
you have a teenager or whatever. But they way you do that varies between
the original white "hub" model and the newer black "telo" model. The telo
can only do that using one of their wireless DECT handsets. In a nutshell,
if you are on a phone connected to the telo base unit (even if via home
wiring or a traditional cordless phone), then one of their handsets can
place a second concurrent call which shows up as the same phone number with
caller ID. Or it can take a second call independently instead of using call
waiting to switch between callers.
The hub model does it by using a wired "scout" unit, and in that case your
home wiring is used for digital transmissions instead.
With ooma the concept of "lines" and "phone numbers" is not like traditional
POTS lines. You can have two independent calls going on simultaneously on
the same phone number, and you can have up to 10 phone numbers assigned to a
single ooma system (for an extra charge). Those numbers can be anywhere in
the country, so you could for example get a number which is local to some
distant relatives or a kid in college. They could then make a local call to
contact you, aside from the fact you'd have unlimited outbound long
distance.
Whether you have one or ten numbers assigned to the system, you can have at
most two concurrent calls taking place.
midrange.com
