Ooma Wi-Fi Brings Enterprise-Level Wi-Fi Networking to SMBs

Ooma, the UC and VoIP provider, on Thursday rolled out Ooma Wi-Fi, a service for Ooma Office cloud-based phone service customers.

Ooma Wi-Fi takes the complexity out of wireless networking for SMBs, the company said. It brings the “power and sophistication” of enterprise Wi-Fi networking to SMBs. And it doesn’t require special effort or expertise from the business owner.

The new service is powered in partnership with Extreme Networks.

Dave Beagle is senior director of channels at Ooma. He said the new service will create significant opportunities for Ooma channel partners in two ways.

Ooma’s David Beagle

“First, partners can become a one-stop shop offering cloud-based phone service through Ooma Office or Ooma Office Pro, internet access through our Ooma Connect product and local network management through Ooma Wi-Fi,” he said. “Second, partners can provide Wi-Fi phones to customers with confidence because Ooma Wi-Fi maintains quality of service by prioritizing data for phone calls. And, of course, selling Ooma Wi-Fi gives our partners another revenue opportunity.”

The new service includes multiple networks; guest network and abuse prevention; high-performance access points; easy setup and 24/7 customer support, the company said.

Competitive Advantage

Beagle said the new service gives partners a competitive advantage by making Wi-Fi management affordable and easy.

“Unlike complicated enterprise solutions, Ooma Wi-Fi is fully configured and managed by Ooma experts,” he said. “So the partner and the end customer get plug-and-play simplicity. This opens up the market for partners to sell managed Wi-Fi to SMBs that wouldn’t consider previous solutions.”

Prioritizing call data allows businesses to switch from wired to wireless IP phones. And they can quickly readjust office layouts, a critical need in response to COVID-19, Beagle said.

The service expands the capabilities of Ooma Office. Advanced features like virtual receptionist, ring groups, call parking and multisite access combine to “make small businesses sound like big businesses,” the company said.

In conjunction with the new service, Ooma is providing four Wi-Fi-enabled phones for Ooma Office. Businesses can place IP phones even where there’s no nearby Ethernet cable.

“Ooma now offers every option when it comes to phone endpoints,” Beagle said. “This gives partners a broad portfolio to meet the needs of any and all end customers.”

“Extreme is excited to extend the benefits of our easy-to-use, enterprise-class wireless connectivity solutions to SMBs through our partnership with Ooma,” said Wes Durow, Extreme‘s CMO. “The combination of our ExtremeCloud IQ network management platform and our high-performance, cloud managed access points will help ensure reliable and secure connectivity.”