On 2/7/12 8:37 AM, Eric Olsen wrote:
On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 6:52 PM, S. Dale Morrey<[email protected]>wrote:I was in office max today. They have an ooma device. $199, but free for life after that.Remember, "free for life" isn't actually free anymore. Approximately $4 in fees per month, Ooma has it detailed out on their website somewhere. Ooma doesn't get any of it, it's all for government taxes and such (IIRC). To my knowledge, NetTalk is a flat $30/year (plus taxes, comes out to about $35/year), and MagicJack is a flat $30/year or $20/year if you pay for 5 years (not sure if taxes are added, but their FAQ leads me to believe there's no added taxes). -Eric
Many of the voip companies are still wiggling out of many of the traditional telco taxes by classifying themselves as different mediums. MagicJack will sooner or later have to pay the taxes, as will NetTalk. As more and more customers bail on the traditional telco and go to VoIP, the government will loose more revenue and close the loopholes that allow VoIP companies to not pay.
For example, Vonage got the government attention several years back and had to add the taxes, then did what many telcos do and started adding random fees to make a little more profit and trying to hide it in the list of taxes. Ooma got hit about 18 months ago, and to their credit have only charged the actual taxes they have to pay, and those only to new customers. They have kept their word on original customers, and have done the minimum with new customer in order to keep their business plan viable. I appreciate that, and will continue to do business with them as long as they continue to give a good service for a great price and act honorably. I could do (and have done) a lot worse.
-Steve
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