Republic Wireless or Ooma?

A friend of mine asked what I would recommend, either an Ooma Telo or Republic Wireless $5 wifi plan? Here is what I sent him.

Pros for Moto E with Republic Wireless

- Your child can take it with them if they go to someone else's house, as long as they can use the wifi.

- You have another device for useful apps like Gospel Library etc.

- You can lock the phone using AppLock and still allow some browser access with Qustodio. Qustodio also sends a daily email with detail about what apps have been used and how much.

Cons for Moto E with Republic Wireless

- If your wifi is bad your service will be bad. You need to ensure you have good coverage throughout your house and that your Internet service is fast and clean enough. I added a second Wifi Router connected by wire to our primary one. It has help us so much.

- There is only one of them. With Ooma you can hook up your whole house so all your house phones ring. I think our cordless phone system allows Bluetooth pairing. This means that you can plug in the Moto E next to the Cordless base and when a call comes in, the house phones ring. I have tried it with our cell phones but it never seemed practical. Nor did I want my cell phone calls going to the house where everyone might answer. With a device designated as the family phone, this makes more sense. Here are the cordless phones we use, Vtech DECT 6.0 Five Handset Cordless Phone Bundle. Costco has the best return policy I have ever known.

- There Are some annoying things about the Moto E. It only has 4GB of native memory. We bought 32GB SD cards. We have been managing it by moving apps to the SD card and configuring app to store data on the SD card, but it is a pain. If I had to do it again, I would get a phone with more memory. Maybe the Moto G, though it is not expandable with an SD card. I think a 2nd Generation G will come out soon.

- The Moto E also has a sub standard camera. It does not auto focus and has no flash. I understand the Moto G has a much better camera.

- The voice quality is not as good and consistent as Ooma. Maybe this would improve if your cordless phone base is near your wifi router and you use the blue tooth pairing. This might be because you would be using the DECT signal for the cordless rather than trying to get a signal from the WiFi.

- Here are some cons listed by a poster on Republic Wireless.

Phones available for Republic Wireless

Pros for Ooma

- It has an email service for when someone calls 911. It will send an email to you letting you know someone called it. I know it works because Daniel, our son, mistakenly called 611. That is set for testing the emails.

- It will work with whatever phones you have and be able to ring all the phones in your house.

- It has better voice quality and consistency. Maybe it would be more similar with Bluetooth connection to the phone base.

Cons for Ooma 

- It is not easy for you to take somewhere else.

- It is not smart phone with all its benefits.

Ooma Telo VoIP Free Home Phone Service with Linx Wireless DECT Remote Phone Jack
Ooma Telo HD Bundle

Conclusion

They are both about the same cost each month. I pay less than $4 a month in taxes for Ooma. Home service for Republic Wireless is a little more than $5 with taxes.

I should also mention the biggest disadvantage for anyone considering either option as an alternative to a traditional land line. They both go out with power or Internet outages. If you used the $10 a month service with RW, you would have a Sprint cell network back up.

All said, I probably would get a Moto E instead of a Ooma if I had to buy it today. Since I already have one, I will just keep the Ooma.