cordless phone best to use

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 13, 2007 Posts: 2

The base phone that's connected to the router is 3 floors up and the cordless I have in my room in the 1st floor cannot connect so I have to go up each time. What is the best cordless phone to buy with the widest radius? I read about the DECT system - is that necessary with the Voip system or will a simple far reaching cordless do?
thansk

Posts: 329 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 329

DECT is not necessary for this, but it should work if it has the range. DECT in the USA runs between 1920 and 1930MHz, so it should stay away from WiFi (don't get hte initial version of USA DECT that ran at 2400MHz). DECT everywhere else in the world runs between 1880MHz and 1900MHz - which is also OK.

Either that or a cordless phone that runs at 900MHz or 5800MHz (5.8GHZ) should be OK if it has the range, but be careful because depending on what the building is made of, 3 floors may be too much to get through with anything (wood is fine, concrete poured into a steel "tray" will block almost anything). If you can move the base, that would be a better choice.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 13, 2007 Posts: 2

thanks for the reply. most phone specif does not list the radius - is 70 enough? the floors are wood but will check on the walls- didnt think of it, duh!

Posts: 329 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 329

For standard US (or Canada) residential construction - mostly wood, a radius of 70 is fine. A floor is only about 10ft (about 3m), so 2 floors would be 20ft (about 6m). None of that is far. In most cases, floors/ceilings are more trouble than walls (except for metal modular office walls) - walls are normally just plasterboard (unless you have something build in the 1950s when they spread plaster on wire mesh). Floors need to hold some weight, so they are "thicker" - stronger for holding stuff up, harder for RF to go through. Lower frequencies do better than high (an old 900MHz cordless phone would be better than 5.8GHz).

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Agreed. My newer 5.8 GHz phone doesn't have nearly the range that my old 2.4 GHz or older still 900 MHz had.