Business phone system

[dkdj5]

I have a customer needing a new busines phone system. If they were to get 6 ooma scouts, could they be connected to a Nortel rotory system.

When is ooma coming out with a business system?

Thanks, Duane

[murphy]

The ooma hub supports a maximum of 4 scouts and a maximum of 2 simultaneous phone calls. For 6 simultaneous lines you would need 3 ooma hubs with each having a single scout.

[buzzman]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that Ooma systems is not supposed to be used for business ("personal use" only).

[oomg]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that Ooma systems is not supposed to be used for business ("personal use" only).

In today's home/office business environment, it is almost impossible to distinguish between the two. As far as I know, there is nothing "illegal" per se regarding the use of an ooma system for business purposes (i.e. a violation of any statutory law).

Nevertheless, lets look at the terms of service at paragraph 5 entitled "Use of Equipment and Services"
"(a) Residential Use: We provide the Equipment and Services to you solely for residential use. The use of the term "unlimited" in conjunction with ooma's service offering as it appears on ooma packaging, in sponsored advertising, on the ooma Web site, and in third party marketing materials, refers to normal residential phone usage as defined herein. You agree to use the Equipment only in a manner consistent with normal residential usage patterns. You are prohibited from using the Equipment or any Services for auto-dialing, continuous, or extensive call forwarding, telemarketing (including, without limitation, charitable or political solicitation or polling), voicemail broadcasting, or fax or voicemail blasting or with regular, consistent activity that could be considered commercial or for-profit in nature ("Prohibited Use"). You agree we have the right to terminate your service if we conclude you are using the service for a Prohibited Use. In addition you agree that any usage of more than 3,000 minutes for outbound calling per month will be deemed dispositive proof of Prohibited Use. In the event you engage in Prohibited Use, ooma reserves the right to terminate service without notice or, at ooma's sole discretion, to charge you at a rate of 1.9 cents/min for calls that exceed the 3,000-minute per month outbound calling limitation. This rate may be modified on our Web site from time to time."

Terms and Conditions may be viewed here: http://www.ooma.com/termsandconditions/

From a practical sense, ooma wants to limit the individual users calling times to reasonable limits (i.e. 3000 minutes of outbound calls), and reserves the right to charge a user for excessive outbound calling. Reading the following thread may help explain.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=522&hilit=+3%2C000+minutes+

There are some other possible reasons why ooma would not officially authorize the use of their system for business purposes, but they are probably irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion. Having said all that, ooma could be an effective tool for any small business, particularly those that have mostly inbound calls, and from the little that I know, I can envision a relatively inexpensive way to distribute the calls to several stations.

[Pandora]

Ooma is a residential, not a business service. The Ooma TOS are designed to prevent call centers or large offices from trying to get free calling. If Ooma permitted this, they would go out of business very quickly.

[oomg]

Ooma is a residential, not a business service. The Ooma TOS are designed to prevent call centers or large offices from trying to get free calling. If Ooma permitted this, they would go out of business very quickly.

Inbound calls are not even counted... Thus, I see no particular reason for restricting use vis-a-vis an inbound call center. Outbound calls are subject to the same limits as residential which as I understand is not a firm number unless consistently exceeded.

[Pandora]

Oomg,

From - http://www.ooma.com/learn/ooma_faq.php

16. Is there a maximum amount of minutes per month?

Like all other "unlimited services" such as cell phone data plans and other VoIP services, we do have a limit of 3000 minutes per month (for outbound calling) that we can enforce on a case by case basis in the event that a subscriber is clearly abusing the service (i.e. call centers, commercial purposes, etc.). We have never terminated a customer that has used the service for residential purposes.

[oomg]

Oomg,

From - http://www.ooma.com/learn/ooma_faq.php

16. Is there a maximum amount of minutes per month?

Like all other "unlimited services" such as cell phone data plans and other VoIP services, we do have a limit of 3000 minutes per month (for outbound calling) that we can enforce on a case by case basis in the event that a subscriber is clearly abusing the service (i.e. call centers, commercial purposes, etc.). We have never terminated a customer that has used the service for residential purposes.

Yep... I had already read that... actually read the TOS as well. FWIW, here is my take: If ooma does not offer or provide (at least officially) anything other than residential service, they are not likely to be subjected to claims or legal actions for business interruption, assuming for the sake of discussion only that they were otherwise subject to such liability. The ooma system is a "use at your own risk without any representations or warranties" as far as occasional business use is concerned.

[NginUS]

When is ooma coming out with a business system?

It seems that none of the posts in this thread address the question.

Call volume aside, the terms of service clearly provide legal backing providing potential for Ooma to arbitrarily disconnect your service if in fact, it's in use commercially.
With that, it's an unreliable solution and places any business implementation of Ooma service, and subsequently related business operations, at risk.


How does one go about legitimately using Ooma commercially?

Could it possibly be a matter of a one-time fee of $500 or $1000 instead of $300?

[oomg]

When is ooma coming out with a business system?

It seems that none of the posts in this thread address the question.

Call volume aside, the terms of service clearly provide legal backing providing potential for Ooma to arbitrarily disconnect your service if in fact, it's in use commercially. With that, it's an unreliable solution and places any business implementation of Ooma service, and subsequently related business operations, at risk.

How does one go about legitimately using Ooma commercially?

Could it possibly be a matter of a one-time fee of $500 or $1000 instead of $300?

Well... you are correct. Perhaps this question [When is ooma coming out with a business system?] should be addressed directly to ooma management.