ooma announces an innovative consumer technology dedicated to transforming home telephony from being service-oriented to device-oriented and delivers a new way of calling. The ooma system provides a better phone experience, by enabling unlimited U.S. domestic calls via a broadband connection to any wireless or wireline phone number. A nationwide invitation-only White Rabbit BETA program […]

ooma announces an innovative consumer technology dedicated to transforming home telephony from being service-oriented to device-oriented and delivers a new way of calling. The ooma system provides a better phone experience, by enabling unlimited U.S. domestic calls via a broadband connection to any wireless or wireline phone number. A nationwide invitation-only White Rabbit BETA program also began and general availability of the ooma device is scheduled for the fall of 2007.

Since founding the company in 2005, ooma CEO Andrew Frame has been developing the ooma hardware and software with a team of engineers experienced in embedded system development, VoIP, carrier operations, hardware engineering, high volume consumer devices, Linux and operations support systems.

The concept for ooma originated from Frame’s passion for bringing innovation to home telephony. “I believe that consumers should have a better phone experience, one that combines convenience, innovation and cost savings,” said Frame. “Just as consumers transformed the functionality of their television through TiVo and their music with the iPod, we expect that they will reinvent the way they use their home phone with an ooma system.”

Patrick Monaghan, a senior analyst for Yankee Group, agrees with Frame that consumers are demanding more from their residential phone experience. “ooma is tapping into a category that is starving for a new solution,” he said. “It is refreshing to see a product as innovative as ooma in this space—offering a unique approach to making long-distance calls from existing phones, via a peer-to-peer solution.”
The ooma Experience

An ooma system includes the ooma Hub connected to a broadband connection and the primary phone, and an ooma Scout for each additional active phone extension in your house. For example, if customers use three active phone extensions with current landline phone service, ooma recommends one ooma Hub, and two additional ooma Scouts.

In creating ooma, Frame pooled the knowledge of several leading entrepreneurs — including TiVo co-founder Mike Ramsay and Napster co-founder Sean Parker — with extensive experience in deploying disruptive consumer technologies. “ooma is poised to change the telecommunications category, in much the same way that TiVo changed the landscape of broadcast television,” said Ramsay, who is also an ooma Board member. “The ooma device gives consumers a better way to connect to each other with ease of use and lower cost while, at the same time, providing a platform to receive future services delivered directly from ooma.”

In conjunction with the announcement of the ooma system, the company has initiated an invitation-only BETA program referred to as the White Rabbit program. Each recipient, or White Rabbit, receives a complete ooma system for his or her home, inclusive of the platform devices; an ooma Hub for his or her central phone line; and an ooma Scout for each additional active phone extension.

Every White Rabbit, in addition to receiving a complete ooma system, is provided with three ooma “pass along chips” to send to friends. The ‘pass along chips’ prompt the recipient to go to http://go.ooma.com to enter the code on the chip and register to receive a free ooma system.

ooma has secured $27 million in venture funding from, among others, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, The Founder’s Fund, Worldview Partners, Draper-Richards and WI Harper in a series A and B round.