In article <telecom24.507.5@telecom-digest.org>, <davidesan@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2. Vtech seems to get generally high marks.
> 3. AT&T also seems to get high marks.
I believe that at least some of the AT&T phones are actually made by
Vtech.
> 1. Cellphones are available in 900 mhz, 2.4 Ghz, and 5.8 Ghz. I have
> read that the 2.4 Ghz phones can interfere with 802.11.x wireless
> routers. And I have read that there is no problem. Your thoughts or
> experiences? The 2.4 Ghz phones are about 1/2 the price of the 5.8
> and I don't really want to pay for technology I don't need.
I would stay away from the 900Mhz phones for a few reasons. First,
the only multi-line phones available in 900Mhz are notoriously
unreliable. Second, eavesdropping on many 900Mhz phones, even modern
ones, is trivial.
In the 2.4Ghz band you will in fact see some interference with 802.11b
or g networks (and probably with 802.11n when it's available). How
much depends on how efficient your phone is and how busy your network
is. The Gigasets were actually pretty good this way, but the
incredibly poor quality control on the later handsets made them almost
worthless as has been mentioned earlier in this thread.
Another option is to use an 802.11a network -- which operates in the
5.8Ghz band -- if you want to use 2.4Ghz devices such as phones.
However, 5.8Ghz is even more directional than 2.4GHz and if your house
has lots of thick walls and complicated angles in its layout you may
not get good results with an 11a network. Phones need so much less
bandwidth they don't seem to care much.
The 5.8Ghz phones are a nice solution if you have an interference
problem with a 2.4GHz wireless network, which many people do. The
real problem is that as far as I can tell, no vendor sells even a
2-line 5.8Ghz base station -- as compared to 2.4Ghz where 2 and even 4
line sets are common. If, like me, you live in a building with a door
intercom that's delivered to you on a phone line, being limited to one
line on your fancy expandable cordless phone can be a real pain.
Avoid analog phones no matter what band they're operating in. It is
just too easy (and too popular) to eavesdrop on them. Unfortunately,
though the Gigasets were intentionally designed to be difficult to
eavesdrop on most of the newer stuff isn't; if this is a concern for
you I'm not quite sure what advice to give -- except to stay away from
analog cordless phones (now showing up on the market even in 5.8Ghz!)
even if you don't think it's a concern. Sigh.
Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com
"The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is
to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky
Thor Lancelot Simon (tls@panix.com)