Why Ooma Is Dangerous
You know, with all the coverage on this topic, all of which I outline on my article on Ooma at The VoIP Weblog, I’m surprised nobody picked up on this doomsday scenario I am about to present.
Consider the following: someone through Ooma is using your line. You need to make a 911 call. What happens? Can you make that call? What happens to the poor schmuck who is using your line to make a call? Neither scenario sounds particularly good, either as the person attempting the 911 call, or the fact my call might get dropped. f course, the call through Ooma might get dropped for other reasons, such as your kid unplugging the box, a power outage, or any number of reasons related to the box getting physically molested.
The entire reason we maintain a landline in our home is it’s generally more reliable than the alternatives and 911 works. You don’t want to be thinking about that when you actually need 911.
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Ooma: Well Funded, Stupid Ideas Are Still Stupid…
If there’s any doubt about how I feel about Ooma, let me stay it again: it’s a stupid idea. Feel free to try and change as my mind as I felt the same way about GrandCentral initially, but now I……
Comment by Alec Saunders
Hey Dameon — on the podcast with Mike Arrington, the Ooma founders said that a 911 call would pre-empt anyone using your home phoneline. Basically it would drop the other guy so you could make your call.
Comment by PhoneBoy
Glad someone addressed that. Even so, I would not want to use a service where a “random person” could disconnect my call, even if it’s for a legitimate reason (911). The act of “dropping” a call adds precious seconds to time it takes for 911 to get through.
Comment by Blog Gently
And what about that person just tapping into their local phone line and listening to all the random people using their line??? No thank you!
Pingback by TECHdodo » Blog Archive » Ooma does what now?
[...] calls to the PSTN wouldn’t your local phone be busy if someone is trying to call you? At the phoneboy blog, they even bring up a more interesting question. If you are maintaining a local phone service for [...]
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[...] line, Ooma is a sophisticated ATA that connects to a VoIP network. Connected to the POTS line it adds 911 to the VoIP experience, which consumers depend upon. It also allows that line to be shared, and Ooma asserts that [...]
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