How do you compare cordless phones? Do you buy the cheapest, sleekest or the one with the most features. Are you confused by cordless phone technology and cordless phone frequencies? What is a DECT 6.0 cordless phone and which is the best frequency: 900 MHz, 1.9 GHz, 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz? It is confusing and the wrong decision can result in endless cordless phone problems.
The safest solution is to select a DECT phone. DECT 6.0 technology addresses the problems and complies with a global open standard. By limiting your search to DECT 6.0 phones you will almost certainly find one of the best cordless phones. It also makes cordless phone comparison a lot easier.
DECT 6.0 Digital Technology - Strengths
1. Cordless Phone Interference: interference was a problem for cordless telephones from the earliest days, but it became worse as wireless enabled devices proliferated. Finally the popularity of WiFi networks resulted in congestion of the 2.4 GHz band and the FCC made the 1.9 GHz frequency available. Unlike other frequencies, it can only be used by DECT 6.0 cordless phones, which means that it is impossible for WiFi networks, microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices ... to conflict with a DECT phone call.
2. Range: the 1.9 GHz frequency used by DECT 6.0 phones is responsible for a cordless phone range that is more than adequate for even the largest homes. It is not unusual for handsets to be used without loss of signal, even when more than 150 feet from a base station.
3. Secure Communication: scanning cordless phones was easy before the advent of the DECT 6.0 cordless phone. As DECT 6.0 calls are encrypted with a unique key that is generated each time a call is made, it's almost impossible to eavesdrop calls using a scanner.
4. Extended Stand-by and Talk Time: DECT 6.0 digital technology requires much less power than older technology. Twelve plus hours of talk time and a week or more of standby between charges is not unusual. An extreme example is the Panasonic KX-1032S with up to 17 hours of talk time between charges.
If you are looking for a cordless telephone that is Energy Star Qualified, look no further than DECT 6.0 cordless telephone options. It's unlikely that you will find any other type of cordless telephone that meets the requirements.
By way of contrast 5.8 GHz phones are power hungry. Some so called 5.8 GHz phones actually communicate in one direction using the 2.4 GHz frequency (from the handset to the base) to reduce their power consumption and extend the time between handset charges to an acceptable level.
5. Exposure to EMR: lower power consumption also means that users of DECT phones are less exposed to electro-magnetic radiation than users of older cordless telephone technology and cell phones.
6. Cost: as DECT 6.0 technology is non-proprietary and supports interoperability between different products and vendors, it's cheaper to manufacture DECT 6.0 phones than the alternatives.
DECT 6.0 Multi Line Cordless Phones
While the DECT 6.0 cordless phone is now the standard home phone, it's taken a little longer to achieve the same acceptance as a 2 or 4 line SOHO or small business phone system. Until recently manufacturers persisted with 5.8 GHz proprietary technology whenever designing multi line telephones. That's now changed and almost every manufacturer has released a DECT two line phone. AT&T has gone one step further and released a DECT 4 line cordless phone - the AT&T SB67118. It competes head to head with the Panasonic KX-TG4500B, that had previously owned the niche without contest.
DECT 6.0 and Bluetooth Convergence
The first generation of Bluetooth cordless phones were also 5.8 GHz phones. Manufacturers including Panasonic, VTech, Siemens Gigatech and GE have now switched to making feature rich DECT Bluetooth telephones.
The Future
The DECT 6.0 cordless phone is the future of cordless telephone technology. It's a solid and reliable technology that users trust and rate highly.
