I picked up an Ooma Telo for my parents for Christmas. It's a VOIP service that doesn't charge a monthly fee, edging out services with a monthly fee like Vonage. As much as I liked the idea of Vonage, I could never get behind it because it wouldn't save much money. However, since Ooma has no monthly fee, the savings end up being substantial, and that's something my dad can appreciate for Christmas.
I'll be honest - I was skeptical as to how well the voice quality would be. This was my number one concern. Having been jaded by Skype and other VOIP services in the past, I wasn't sure if the voice quality would really be up to par. However, from the first time we tried Ooma, I was nothing but impressed. The delay on a call with the Ooma between caller and recipient was standard with any other wired phone system, still even less delay than a cell phone connection. And most importantly, there was no cutouts or bandwidth problems - the voice quality was crystal clear.
Sure, the device itself could have been a little easier to use. As nice as it looks, I can foresee my parents having trouble knowing what all the icons mean, since there are no labels and no LCD on the device. But in the long term, the Telo itself is a minor issue. I'm sure my parents will adjust to listening to their voicemail online rather than from a wired box in the house.
The thing I was most interested in when it came to Ooma was the service itself. The call quality was the most important factor, and having worked just fine on my parents' cable modem connection, Ooma did not let me down. It's too bad I don't need a home phone for myself, because I really want an Ooma just to say I have one, but nobody would ever call me. Although, I do have a Skype In number. Maybe I could port that number to my Ooma. Hmm...