Scoop: 27M of VC money, 2.5 years of development for another VoIP service that essentially exploits the free termination loophole? I wonder what the deal is with Ooma? This is a service that gives you a set-top box that acts as ATA (broad band in, standard telephony jack, perhaps mutliple? out and vice versa). Call termination is simple. its just going to be like any other VoIP offerings such as Vonage. But for callout, it seem to route the calls to any Ooma user near to its location who has a local landline, terminate it at his box (basically then the box acts as a CO switch — now wait until the telco’s respond to that 
), place a regular local call from there. Is it innovation or twisted PhoneGnome, sort of both or or just plain boring ? I guess it depends on who you ask!
Pricing: $399 for the box. Free USA and Canada calls forever.
My Thoughts: So for this to succeed, Ooma must be counting on large number of its customer base to have traditional local service. Otherwise it has to pay for these local routing. And for money stream, they may offer some enhanced and premium services and charge a monthly fee. I can’t imagine they can run the company from just selling the set-top box for $399.
