Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Today we’ve got a guest post by Scott McGrath.  Scott has worked in the IT industry as a consultant and Sysadmin for 12 years, and has enjoyed communications gadgets since he got his Fisher Price telephone at 2 years of age.  Like what he said?  Hate what he said?  Go over to Scott’s blog at www.scamwagon.com and let him know.

Believe it or not, I’m in the market for a cordless phone.  Before you laugh, there’s actually plenty of reasons I maintain a land line, not the least of which is the fact that I have poor cell coverage at my home, and not the most of which is the fact that cellular usually can not hold a candle to the real deal PSTN or good VoIP line, in terms of quality.  Cordless phones still have life since some can pair to your cell phone so you don’t have to rush to find that tiny handheld when it rings.  If you’re a Skype user, you can be untethered with some cordless phones.

Over the years, cordless phones have been through some changes.  Here’s a brief history:

The beginning: 49MHz (1986)

Cordless phones really start to hit the scene.  Sharing the band with just about every consumer device under the sun (walkie talkies, RC cars, baby monitors), these phones were prone to static and terrible range, and eavesdropping by anyone with a scanner.

Better signals: 900MHz (1990)

This was a major breakthrough.  The radios use far less power to achieve better range, and operate on a band that is reasonably clear of other devices.  The signal propagation at 900 MHz is great - similar to cellular phones.  In my opinion, these phones are still the least annoying to have around, but they’re usually still analog, and that’s a security risk.

Phones vs. Wi-Fi: 2.4GHz (1998)

Finally phones started getting really high tech.  Digital phones hit the scene with frequency hopping, encryption. Unfortunately they are often rendered useless with wireless access points around.

Higher is better, right?  5.8GHz (2003)

The cordless manufacturers had no place to go but 5.8GHz.  They took advantage of the rampant notion that higher frequency is better.  In reality, 5.8GHz behaves more like a beam of light, and consequently doesn’t like obstacles.  Yuck.  Their only saving grace is that they don’t compete with 802.11 B/G WAPs.

The Age of DECT

Now for the latest technology on the scene: DECT.  This is exciting stuff.  DECT is 1.9 GHz, which is definitely in the sweet spot for signal propagation.  Another benefit is reduced interference, as the 1.9 GHz band is reserved for cordless phones only!  What’s more, the DECT standard allows you to have multiple handsets per base, incomparable range and talk time, and more.

You’d think with all this baked-in goodness, it’d be pricey…  But they’re very affordable.  A basic, single handset DECT cordless, such as the Panasonic KX-TG6311S, is available for under $40.00 at Amazon.com.

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