Cordless phone for least interference with wireless: 5.8 GHz or DECT 1.9 GHz?

My old cordless is kaput. It was 2.4 GHz and got static near the
microwave, so I won't really miss it. We are thinking about a wireless
computer network in near future, and should buy the new phone (with
answering machine) with that in mind too.

I had assumed that 5.8 GHz would be the natural/only choice. However,
some research showed up a new technology called DECT that operates at
1.9 GHz.

I would greatly appreciate hearing your opinion on which one, 5.8 GHz
or 1.9 GHz, is more likely to coexist peacefully with the wireless and
the microwave?

Non-computer question: I was thinking of a Panasonic, just habit and
positive experience but not necessary. However, Panasonic's answering
machine doesn't *seem to* tell you how many messages you have in the
inbox. At least the pictures I looked at didn't show any obvious LCD
for that purpose. Can anybody recommend a good phone, any brand, which
will show how many messages there are in the box? Thanks.

 

Old style 2.4 gHz cordless phones were particularlu dumb and just used
any channel it wanted to.

I don't have any experience with 5.8 gHz phones because they are illegal
outside of the "Americas". People I know in the U.S. that bought them
complain about their short range and problems with walls and furniture
blocking them.

DECT uses the 1.8gHz cellular telephone band, which overlaps with the
1.9gHz band used in the U.S., so while I say they are 1.8 gHz, you
can say 1.9.

They are designed to check a frequency before the use it for activity and
move to vacant channels. Although they use the same band, they don't use
the same channels as cell phones, so they don't interfere with other
users of the frequencies and are not interfered with by them.

To keep this on a Macintosh footing as you posted to a Mac group,
they co-exist very nicely with WiFi networking. Keep your base
stations at least a foot apart and you will have no interference
problems. More distance is better, but not needed.

I have two different DECT phone systems, one a single phone, and the
other 4 handsets sharing the same base station and they have no problems
with each other, WiFi networks, including my own, microwave ovens,
my neighbor's 2.4gHz cordless phones, local radar systems, etc.

There are many brands and models, each with different "features"
and user interface. Check them out if you can before you buy them,
some are very difficult to use.

Geoff.

 

The jury is in: DECT 6.0 technology is the way to go.

On August 4th, I brought home a 4 handset Panasonic DECT 6.0 cordless system
from Sam's Club.

<http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?catg=535&item=370127&prDeTab=2#A>

The same configuration is available from Wal-Mart.

<http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5700417>

I have been very pleased with the CORDLESS performance of this system. (I
have not used the integrated answering system.)

 

Maybe try one that can have MacOS installed on it?

Either that or try a more relevant newsgroup to post your query to ;-)

HTH,

Andy.

 

900Mhz digital phone.

All my house phones are 900Mhz since I also have 802.11g (2.4Ghz) and
802.11a (5.x Ghz) in the air. Everything works fine together...