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Get an Ooma Telo home phone system for $99.99

It's refurbished, but at least you don't have to deal with any rebates. And except for taxes and fees, phone service is free for life.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
3 min read
The Ooma Telo connects to your router and your existing cordless phone system.
The Ooma Telo connects to your router and your existing cordless phone system. Woot

This is an update of a deal I wrote about last year.

Landline? What's a landline? In my house, phone service arrives via the Interwebs. Over the years I've used a handful of voice-over-IP services (some good, some bad), eventually settling on Ooma and saving literally thousands of dollars in the process.

Want to do likewise? Today only, and while supplies last, Sellout.Woot has the refurbished Ooma Telo home phone system for $99.99, plus $5 for shipping. The last time I wrote about it, it was $10 more -- but that was after waiting on a $50 mail-in rebate. No rebates today!

The Telo is a touch-operated, answering machine-style black box that plugs into your router. Next, you plug your existing cordless-phone base unit into the Telo. Presto: you've got dial tone, same as if you were still using a POTS line.

Once you buy the hardware (which sells new for $149.99), you're looking at nearly free local and long-distance phone service -- forever. Your only bill will be for taxes and fees, which in my area come to around $3.50 per month.

Ah, but you might want to consider paying a little more. The Telo affords fairly basic phone features: caller ID, voice mail, and so on. If you want extras like a second line, three-way calling, call forwarding (in the event of an Internet outage), and greatly enhanced voice mail, you'll need Ooma Premier, which runs $9.99 per month. Also, porting your existing number costs $39.99 -- unless you prepay for a year of Premier ($119.99), in which case it's free.

So, yeah, Ooma does nickel-and-dime you a bit, but most of the extras are optional. And if you're currently paying, say, $40 per month for landline service, that $120 for a full year of goodies is a great deal.

But how's the quality? I've been an Ooma user for about three years, and for the most part the service is excellent. Even with the Telo installed behind my router (rather than in between it and my cable modem, the recommended setup), call quality is much better than I got from Vonage.

As for Ooma's customer service, I can't really comment because I've rarely had cause to use it. Indeed, I'd say it's been two years since I needed help with anything. Everything just works.

Interestingly, the other day I included a bonus deal for the NetTalk Duo WiFi, a similar product priced much less. Readers came out in droves to say they prefer Ooma.

Here's hoping this doesn't sell out before you've had a chance to snag one.

Bonus deal: The Canon Pixma Pro-100 is a wide-format inkjet printer that normally sells for around $400. While supplies last, Adorama has the Pixma Pro-100 for $89, shipped. That's after redeeming a $300 (!) mail-in rebate (PDF). The Pixma Pro-100 uses an eight-ink system to produce pages as large as 13x19 inches. (You get a 50-sheet pack of that size paper free with your purchase.) It offers USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Thanks to reader RSDunn for sharing this insane deal!

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