1. Overview
  2. I do not have a landline connected to my home
  3. My landline is still connected, but my house is wired for two phone lines

Overview

You may be able to use your Ooma Telo Base Station to distribute dial tone to the phone jacks throughout your home, allowing you to use phones in different rooms. Before connecting Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie to the phone jacks in your home, first you must make sure that those phone jacks are not connected to the telephone company’s wiring outside of your house (see below).

WARNING: The PHONE port on the back of your Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie is not designed or certified for connecting to your phone company’s wiring, whether through the phone jacks in your house or otherwise. Use of your Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie with the PHONE port connected to the phone company’s outside wiring creates an increased risk of electrical shock and/or fire, may violate FCC and other regulations, and will void your warranty. If you have any questions or concerns regarding whether or not the phone jacks in your house are connected to the phone company’s wiring outside your house you should consult with a licensed electrician before proceeding!

ooma whole home

In order to set up your Ooma as a whole-home solution, at least one of the following conditions must be met:

  • You do not have a landline physically connected to your home. This means that the phone company’s wiring outside your house has been completely and physically disconnected from your home’s internal phone jack wiring, including any ground wire.

    Important: You can’t set up Ooma to distribute a dialtone to all of your phone jacks if your only phone line is still hooked up to your old phone company!

  • You still have a landline connected, but your house is wired for two phone lines, and you have confirmed that line inside your house that you will connect to your Telo Base Station or Phone Genie has been completely and physically disconnected from the phone company’s wiring outside your house (as explained above).

    Important: You can’t set up Ooma to distribute a dialtone to all of your phone jacks if your only phone line is still hooked up to your old phone company!

I do not have a landline connected to my home

If your home is completely and physically disconnected from your telephone company’s wiring outside your house, you can distribute your Ooma signal to all of the phone jacks in your house. You will need to set up your Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie as depicted in the diagram below:

home distribution no landline

Note: The cable connecting the Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie to your wall jack should be plugged into the PHONE port of the Telo Base Station or Phone Genie - not the WALL port!

WARNING: You must make sure that your telephone company’s wiring to your house has been completely and physically disconnected from your in-home wiring. This means you must unplug the connection from your phone company at the junction box on the outside of your home, including any ground wire. If the phone company wiring is still connected (even if the service has been cancelled) and you attempt to distribute dialtone as described above, there is an increased risk of fire and/or electrical shock and you may damage your Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie. Any such connection will void your warranty. If you have any questions or concerns regarding whether or not the phone jacks in your house are still connected to the phone company’s wiring outside your house you should consult with a licensed electrician before proceeding!

My landline is still connected, but my house is wired for two phone lines

If your home is wired for two phone lines and one of the lines is not in use, you may use the unused line to distribute your Ooma connection to all of the phone jacks in your house as shown in the diagram below.

WARNING: You must first confirm that your house is wired for two phone lines and that the line inside your house that you will connect to your Telo Base Station or Phone Genie has been completely and physically disconnected from your phone company’s wiring outside your house, including any ground wire, before hooking your Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie up in the way described below. This means you must unplug the connection from your phone company to the line you will use for your Telo Base Station or Phone Genie at the junction box on the outside of your home, including any ground wire. If the phone company wiring is still connected (even if the service has been cancelled) and you attempt to distribute dialtone as described below, there is an increased risk of fire and/or electrical shock and you may damage your Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie. Any such connection will void your warranty. If you have any questions or concerns regarding whether or not the phone jacks in your house are still connected to the phone company’s wiring outside your house you should consult with a licensed electrician before proceeding!

home distribution landline

Note: If your Telo Base Station or Phone Genie unit was manufactured after April 2011, it does not have a WALL port and does not support the integration of a traditional landline via the WALL port as depicted above.

Important: If both phone lines are wired into a single physical jack in each room, (meaning that you don’t have two phone jacks, one for line 1 and one for line 2), you must use a two-line splitter to connect your Ooma Telo Base Station or Phone Genie to the second line. Note that you need to use a two-line splitter not a duplex splitter (which is used to connects two devices to the SAME line).