Ooma is a startup Internet telephony (VoIP) firm with an interesting offer.

They are selling a $399 Linux-based telephone. That may seem like a lot of money for a phone, until you learn that the phone provides free long-distance throughout the United States.

Ooma is able to do this by using a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) architecture for call routing. When you place a long-distance call using your Ooma telephone, it is first sent over your broadband Internet connection. From there, it is routed to another Ooma box in the same local calling area as you are calling. For example, if you are in New York and you are placing a call to Los Angeles, your call path is: your Ooma box -> your broadband Internet connection -> “The Internet” -> an Ooma box in Los Angeles -> the destination you are calling in Los Angeles.

Similarly, your Ooma box will be used to place telephone calls for other Ooma subscribers. This peer-to-peer architecture is what enables Ooma to provide this service for free.

Ooma also offers international long distance service at rates which vary from one cent per minute to Europe to eight cents per minute to India.