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I would like to have conditional CALL FORWARDING added with the basic package; so that if there is an outage, whether system wide or local (like a power or a DSL outage), the calls would automatically forward to a predesignated cell phone no.] The call would never go thru to the Cell unless the Ooma Hub could not receive the call.

personally i think every Voip provider should offer this as Standard. since VOIP service depends on internet connections which depend on power, unlike standard phone service. Also voip providers manage much more points of failure (servers, switches, etc) themselves than a telco and there are just more points of failure in general.

I agree... Call it Network Availability Number or something along those lines. A must have feature!

My preference for conditional call forwarding would be that we'd be able to set it up to ring the ooma phone x number of times and then another phone on the next 2 rings, and then maybe all 3 phones (yet another) on the next 2 rings after that - before VM picked up.

personally i think every Voip provider should offer this as Standard. since VOIP service depends on internet connections which depend on power, unlike standard phone service. Also voip providers manage much more points of failure (servers, switches, etc) themselves than a telco and there are just more points of failure in general.

Last week my landline went dead at about 9:00 in the morning. I figured I'd be out on my Internet too since I have DSL but it was still up! After calling Qwest repair (on my ooma) I was told there was a network outage on Harstine Island where I live and it was affecting a major part of the island. I was given a completion date for the repair FIVE DAYS out. Later that day I found a telco craft person and asked him what was happening. He told me that a squirrel had eaten through a fiber cable that was affecting voice communications only. They had strung a temporary cable but things were not going terribly well. During most of that time if I had only my landline I would have had no communications. No 911, no calls in or out. I was blessed to have my trusty ooma system up and running as well as a cell phone that almost works at the house. I had just started using a Google Voice number as my new main number so I just went online and made a few changes and our callers were none the wiser.

The point of all this is that we always think that a landline is bulletproof and will never fail. In this case, my VOIP saved the day.

He told me that a squirrel had eaten through a fiber cable that was affecting voice communications only.

Are you sure that wasn't a raccoon that made the case for Ooma?

He told me that a squirrel had eaten through a fiber cable that was affecting voice communications only.

Are you sure that wasn't a raccoon that made the case for Ooma?

Nah. Raccoons have great dexterity and would have merely disconnected the cable if it was in their way. The only threat would have been if the cable was shiny. Raccoons love shiny things. But on second thought, raccoons like ooma too so you might be right!

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The point of all this is that we always think that a landline is bulletproof and will never fail. In this case, my VOIP saved the day.

Not really what I think at all. My concern is a failover, period. If ever encountered a time when my home phone line went dead (i haven't) then i'd be pushing for this on that front as well. However since landline providers are "established" already - the chance of them changing their ways is slim to none.
Since VOIP is still evolving in its capabilities and offerings (ooma a prime example), I suggest things to make it all better than what we've come to know and come to expect from home phone service. The large reality here is that unlike landline service, voip is depending on power - which fails much more often than landline service does, i think we can agree.

I wouldn't be forwarding my voip to a landline anyway, i'd be forwarding it to a cell phone. as of my ooma service, i have no landline service to my residence. so i'm not saying that landline is infallible in the least, just merely trying to make voip less fallible, and therefore more attractive to future customers.

OT: but related

I've had land line service since January 2008 and ooma service since January 2009. During that time ooma was down for about 10 hours and Verizon was down for 19 hours.

With ooma I just lost phone service.

With Verizon, in addition to no phone service, I had three visits from the Police due to bogus 911 calls made by the failed Verizon hardware. When I got my next bill I discovered there were also a bunch of calls made to 411 that they wanted to bill me for. I declined to pay. It wasn't just my line that was out of service, the entire area was out.

Verizon is now on a mission to get rid of all of their copper circuits and replace them with FIOS fiber optic circuits. Lately I've been getting about three letters a week trying to get me to switch. They come with a battery backup circuit to keep the fiber line working during power failures. They claim "UP TO" 8 hour backup. A friend has FIOS and during an extended power outage his phone service lasted 2 hours before the battery was dead.

Anybody see this (attached)????

Just found it in my Lounge this morning!

edit: i see we've already had a community post on it here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2482
and here is the official release notice: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2476&p=17254