The California monthly tax on phone service is horrendous. The Ooma is portable; it simply uses a VOIP connection. Do you know if I can buy the Ooma online for, shipping to, say, NJ (wink wink) and then I'd only pay the much lower NJ monthly tax?
Is this even possible?
How does California know WHERE your Ooma is set up in order to tax you monthly rates?
I plugged in a zip code to this tax & fee calculator:
Regulatory Compliance Fee = $1.78
911 Service Fee = $1.59 Federal Universal Service Charge = $0.39 State and local taxes, fees and surcharges = $1.48 Total: $5.24How does California know where you plugged in your Ooma into VOIP?
Not "California" but Ooma. Is it Ooma, or is it the microcells that have GPS? They have to be located via GPS as part of their startup routine.
I had a Callvantage box that didn't care. A customer service tech said that one customer was calling from a vacation home in Brazil with some questions.
Hmmm... does that mean that when you reboot the Ooma, it figures out where it is by GPS?
If so, how does it get a GPS signal from inside the house?
The Ooma box does not have a GPS inside. That's strictly for Nanocellular devices (usually Samsung) used by the cellular carriers to supply indoor cellular coverage (usually at customers expense).
"Your monthly taxes and fees are calculated based on the 911 address you have on file."
I'm impressed Ooma charges these fees. I would have though a room full of lawyers would get around the taxes. [Hey, it works for Apple. You know, Apple Computer located in Reno Nevada!]
I just use my mobile phone. Yeah, once in a while I fire up the landline, but I really just have it for DSL. You need a cell phone these days anyway and cost per minute is so cheap. I get 1500 anywhere minutes for $35 a month. I usually use half that amount.
Incidentally, with T-mobile, you don't need a micro or nano cell. It does VOIP via wifi. (UMA Unified Mobile Access). I don't do UMA calls often, but there are times when the feature comes in mighty handy. In the US, only T-mobile has it, and not every phone they sell does UMA.
There was an article going around a few years ago how these pico cells were being hacked to snag unsuspecting cellular users.
I was all set to go with that T-Mobile WiFi except for two things:
1-The don't offer service in my area, so I'd have to be inventive about that. 2-The WiFi was only on certain phones that were not the current chic models. Point two changed.I ordered the Ooma. The order form just made me pay sales tax of $16.50 but nothing else yet.
I assume the calculation of monthly tax happens during setup.
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