Ooma Wi-Fi: Taking the complexity out of wireless networking for small and medium-sized businesses

Ooma announced Ooma Wi-Fi, a service for Ooma Office cloud-based phone service customers that takes the complexity out of wireless networking for small and medium-sized businesses.

Large enterprises typically deploy elaborate and expensive solutions for managing Wi-Fi networks, requiring experts to install and operate them. Ooma Wi-Fi brings the power and sophistication of enterprise Wi-Fi networking to SMBs in an affordable and turnkey solution that doesn’t require special effort or expertise from the business owner.

The features of Ooma Wi-Fi include:

• Multiple networks. Employee workstations, guest devices, and IP phones can be assigned to separate networks to keep information secure and manage performance.
• Quality of service (QoS). Data can be prioritized for Wi-Fi phones, to maintain consistent audio performance even when there is heavy network traffic.
• Guest network and abuse prevention. Customized login screens and terms of service agreements control how and when guests access a company’s network. Abuse prevention features allow the company to set bandwidth limits for individual devices and block malicious users.
• High performance access points. Enterprise-grade hardware, with internal 3×3 MU-MIMO antennas, designed for demanding environments, with advanced features such as software-defined radios for optimizing coverage and capacity.
• Easy setup. Wi-Fi access points and the management system are preconfigured by Ooma, allowing for plug and play installation at the customer’s site. No technicians required.
• 24/7 customer support. Ooma experts are always available to monitor the customer’s managed Wi-Fi network, diagnose problems and make remote repairs when possible.

Ooma Wi-Fi is available now to Ooma Office customers at $11.99 per month for the first access point under management and $6.99 per month for each additional access point.

Ooma is providing three access points for Ooma Wi-Fi:

• The Ooma AP 250 provides Wi-Fi coverage for up to 3,000 square feet.
• The Ooma AP 150 covers up to 1,000 square feet and can support a downstream router or switch for wired networking.
• The Ooma AP 30 is a Wi-Fi range extender that can make a wireless mesh connection to other Wi-Fi access points.

Ooma Wi-Fi expands the capabilities of Ooma Office, a solution carefully curated to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Advanced features such as a virtual receptionist, ring groups, call parking and multi-site access combine to make small businesses sound like big businesses.

In conjunction with the launch of Ooma Wi-Fi, Ooma is providing a selection of four Wi-Fi-enabled phones for Ooma Office. This gives businesses the flexibility to place IP phones wherever they’re needed, even if there’s no nearby Ethernet cable.

Ooma Wi-Fi is also a perfect complement to the Ooma Connect fixed wireless internet solution that delivers both data and phone service. The Ooma Connect base station is a 1-gigabit router that can link Ooma Wi-Fi access points to the internet, providing “one stop shopping” from a single provider for internet access, phone service and local network management.

Ooma Wi-Fi is powered in partnership with Extreme Networks, a leader in cloud managed networking infrastructure, including the ExtremeCloud IQ management platform, which automates and accelerates the service upturn on customer Wi-Fi-as-a-service deployments with simplified onboarding of cloud-managed access points.

“In today’s fast-paced business environment, companies of all sizes are adopting managed Wi-Fi services so they can spend more time advancing the business and less time managing and troubleshooting the network,” said Wes Durow, Chief Marketing Officer, Extreme Networks.

“Extreme is excited to extend the benefits of our easy-to-use, enterprise-class wireless connectivity solutions to small and medium businesses through our partnership with Ooma.

“The combination of our ExtremeCloud IQ network management platform and our high-performance, cloud managed access points will help ensure reliable and secure connectivity, and ultimately an effortless networking experience for all Ooma Wi-Fi customers.”

“Ooma Wi-Fi continues our mission of making sophisticated technology affordable and easy to deploy for small and mid-sized businesses,” said Thad White, vice president for product management at Ooma.

“We’re removing complexity by delivering ‘concierge’ service where Ooma pre-configures the Wi-Fi access points and then manages them, so the customer only has to plug in the hardware to get up and running.”