Airport Extreme wirelessly networked to Ooma (VOIP) wireless base station

The recommended setup using Ooma between your router and modem is the WORST POSSIBLE Configuration for everything except VOIP. Don't do it. You will seriously slow down your internet and the chance that phone will work poorly due to bandwidth requirements in this day and age is so unlikely.. The only exception would be slow ADSL..

So if you follow the manual..

https://support.ooma.com/assets/pdfs/Ooma-Telo-Air-2-QSG_Black_EN-FR_v4_0.pdf

Plug the Ooma into your Airport Extreme which will be working as the main router.. and setup the Ooma as per manual on p21-22.

The wireless in the Ooma is also really not a great idea.

I would return the Ooma Air for a cheaper wired version

Yes.. VOIP over wifi is not so great.

replace my beloved AE for a Linksys Velop which, I assume Ooma Air2 could wirelessly connect to?

This is going to cost you a lot.. so this could be a good move if your Airport is >3years old and / or suffering poor wifi etc. At some point you will need to go to a new router.. plan carefully because I don't think the velop is the greatest option here..

But using Ooma by wireless is really bad.. over mesh worse and worse.. don't do it.. plug the Ooma by ethernet into the main router.. and use cordless handsets if you want to use the phones in other places in the house without cabling.. or wire the Ooma back to your existing telephone connection. Ooma sell cordless handsets for the model you have.. or you can just buy a standard cordless phone setup with hub plugged into Ooma. They are cheap and common and have excellent range with dedicated wireless so have no issues. Even a very big house you can buy long range ones.

Following on from Bob's comment there are two ways around your problem.

Do not use the Airport wirelessly and if ethernet is not possible, then you could try Powerline Adapters.. They can work OK in some setups.

Or you could buy another Airport Extreme cheap.. same or better model to what you already own. It will have to be second hand so this is not great solution .. Apple went out of the router business a couple of years ago. The Airport can then be plugged into the Ooma router .. or better.. replace the Ooma as your main router with the Airport and plug the Ooma into it as secondary VOIP only device.. they are particularly poor low end router so using it as main router is very bad idea.

What is the actual model number of the Ooma wireless router? It is important to make sure the specs allow either router or bridge setup.. but normally in the past I just recommend to people voip devices should not be used as main router.

You can certainly replace the Airport.. Apple themselves now sell the Linksys Velop, Eero and Netgear Orbi. Mesh is better solution for overall wireless.. if the place you live is small and the Airport is AC model try just plugging it into the Ooma with short patch cable and see .. if you previously used the Airport as your main router it can still be used to cover your wifi needs.. just turn off the wifi in the Ooma which is probably poor.

The AirPort Extreme cannot wirelessly connect to a 3rd party WiFi network. It can only connect wirelessly to another network provided by another Apple router.