Ooma's Virtually Free Phone Service

Bad news: It's your home phone. You know how you've been ridiculing the neighbor who brags about dirt-cheap Internet calls through that cult called VoIP, as in Voice over Internet Protocol?

Cable provider like Cox Communications

If you're getting landline service from a cable provider like Cox Communications, Comcast, Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-verse, at the time you've been making calls over the Internet, too.

Now that you're comfortable with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), let's consider an Internet phone service with free domestic calls for life that lets you keep your landline number during retaining features like caller ID, call waiting and 9-1-1. If you're willing to pay extra for a Premier package, it will even e-mail voice messages or forward calls to your cellphone. It doesn't need a computer, either; only a router, modem and broadband service.

Ooma, in point of fact, does everything the cable phone does except flash the caller's number and ID on the television screen, eerily, a second or two previously the phone to tell the truth rings. Like as not Ooma would do that, too, if it as well offered television service.

Ooma makes most of its money upfront: To get those free calls, you must purchase a Telo base station that connects to an existing broadband router and for the moment one Telo handset.

Recycled number and

Those who don't port get a recycled number and, possibly, recycled callers. This non-porter received for the time being a half-dozen forlorn calls from someone looking for "Kyla."

International calls to 70 countries cost less than a cent a minute. If not, you pay only monthly taxes, fees and relevant state and local taxes — for me, $3.47 a month. Opposite, I believe my cable phone bill, among its exhaustive charges totaling close to $40, lists a monthly $3.47 fee for "remote eradication of germs left on handset."

Still can't give up your lovable landline? Drop the expensive service and for all that keep the phone. Just plug it into the Telo base, which as well has touch-sensitive controls for voicemail access. With this setup, you could have a single Telo handset and keep your cordless phones — all operating through the Telo base.

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