Switching from Verizon FiOS to Ooma
We got Ooma about a month ago. I connected it to one telephone to try it out before porting our phone number. Since all went well, I started the port last week. It was completed today. After we got an email telling us the port was done, the telephone connected to Ooma had our old landline number on it and worked fine. The rest of the house connected to FiOS could still dial out, but, of course, could not receive calls.
To hook up the rest of the house, I had to disconnect the house service from FiOS. This was done at the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) box, which is mounted to the outside of my house next to the electric meter:
FiOS ONT
To open it, I removed one screw on the right side and opened the two snaps. They were clearly labeled. Inside the ONT, the phone line (the blue and white wires) were connected to a plastic jack that kinda looks like a phone jack:
The landline connection to FiOS
To open it, I pulled the bottom tab (where the blue and white wires go in) toward me. It pops out maybe 40 degrees. This freed the blue and white wires, which I pulled out and labeled “do not connect”. I also labeled the wires “left” and “right” in case I ever need to put them back. That was it for FiOS.
To get the rest of the house on Ooma, I disconnected the test telephone from the Ooma Telo and replaced it with an RJ-11 splitter. I plugged the telephone I just disconnected into one half of the splitter and connected the wall jack that used to be connected to FiOS into the other half. That was it!