Ooma-La-La!

It took me a while, but I finally gave the old heave-ho to AT&T and joined the VoIP revolution courtesy of Ooma, who are here to give Vonage and Skype a run for their money. Speaking of dough, you need only shell out your hard-earned one time to say goodbye to phone bills forevermore. That's right, $250 buys you the Ooma hardware and then you can stay on the phone 24 hours a day to anyone in the USA and never pay another penny. Stock up on throat lozenges.

Of course, there are minor drawbacks to making your phone calls over the internet and not on a landline. In the event of a power failure or if your ISP is down, you will have to resort to your cellphone or carrier pigeons to communicate with your bookie or broker. You can even keep your current phone number for a one-time fee. Caller ID, voicemail and call forwarding are all available as well.

Acoustic performance has been excellent thus far. Setup is simple: You plug an ethernet cable from your router to the Ooma base unit, attach the phone and you are in business just like that. Another cool option is having your voicemails delivered as soundclips to your email address, which I've found is a handy way to send memos to oneself. International rates are dirt-cheap, and data encryption safeguards make sure nobody's listening to you whispering sweet nothings down the block. Here's hoping the word gets out -- Ooma is heap good gadgetry.