Ooma extends free 911 alerts to basic service customers

PALO ALTO, CA - Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

Ooma, Inc., the leading provider of HD-quality free home phone service, today announced that it is extending its popular 911 Alerts feature to its Basic service customers in the U.S. and Canada. The 911 Alerts feature, which is made possible by the Ooma online platform, provides added peace of mind because it can accelerate critical communications during a home emergency situation.

With the 911 Alerts feature, Ooma subscribers can enter up to three email addresses or mobile phone numbers using the “My Ooma” online control panel. Once the emergency notification group is set up, Ooma will automatically send alert messages to specified recipients whenever 911 is called from the subscriber’s Ooma phone number.

“Based on overwhelmingly positive customer feedback and the difference that 911 Alerts can help make in an emergency situation, we decided to make it available for free to all of our Basic service customers,” said Jim Gustke, Vice President of Marketing at Ooma. “We hope that our customers will never have to receive a 911 Alert, but the opportunity to be on top of an unexpected emergency at home, or with someone close to them, adds a lot of peace of mind. Free 911 Alerts is just one feature of many that clearly sets Ooma apart from other home phone service options.”

Kellie Scrogum, an Ooma customer who lives in Kennesaw, Georgia, purchased an Ooma Telo for her parents who are elderly to save money on their monthly phone bill and for the advanced features that Ooma provides. Recently when her mother called 911 because her father needed help, she instantly received a text and email informing her that a 911 call was placed from her parents’ home.
“I was able to beat the EMTs to the house, thanks to Ooma,” says Scrogum. “My father ended up being fine, but both my parents were shocked that I knew what was going on even before the EMTs had a chance to show up. Not only is Ooma’s quality of service amazing, but I gain the assurance of being immediately alerted when 911 is called from my parent’s home. My brother, parents and I all use Ooma, and we love it. What an amazingly awesome product.”
Other features bundled with Ooma’s basic level of service include free nationwide calls, caller-ID, call waiting, 911 service, Ooma Bluetooth service that allows mobile phone calls to be answered on Ooma home phone systems, Ooma Wireless service that allows the Ooma Telo to be placed anywhere in range of a Wi-Fi network, and one-touch voicemail access at home or remote voicemail access from any phone or Web browser.

The Ooma 911 Alerts feature was previously available only to Ooma Premier service customers, an optional level of service that includes more than 25 advanced features for $9.99/month. Some of the most popular Ooma Premier features include an Instant Second Line™ from any Ooma Telo Handset, three-way conferencing, Multi-Ring to simultaneously ring or forward calls to a mobile phone, Voicemail Forwarding to Email so subscribers can listen to voicemail messages from any computer or smart phone, and Blacklist features to block certain callers or send them to voicemail and avoid unwanted solicitations.