Cordless VOIP Phones for Home

[coxhaus]

I know nothing about this but I saw a reference on the internet and I wonder if there exists VOIP phones that you can buy for home use which would run across my wireless network. I have better coverage with my wireless network than just using a standard phone base. Is something like this affordable for home use? Can you use them as an intercom?
I currently have 4 cordless phones with one phone base which connects to an ATT VOIP connection.
PS
Lets take ATT out of the picture and talk about generalities. I can acquire a different VOIP provider.

 

[thiggins]

Not a big demand for this for consumer applications.

DECT 6 phones have pretty good range and don't interfere with Wi-Fi

 

[stevech]

I just plug my Panasonic cordless DECT phone base station into my CableCo's modem. Of course, then all the cordless phones work off of that.
WiFi VoIP is not a good experience.
Nor is VoIP via an adapter (ATA) on a router.

Cable TV's digital phone is not VoIP. Mine provides better quality/reliablity than my long-gone grossly overpriced AT&T landline phone. This gear is also on my UPS.
But too, my cell phone is likely to work in a local power failure.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I use my DECT 6 cordless phone system which is plugged into a MagicJack which is in turn connected directly into a LAN port on my router.

Not perfect but I normally get a better quality call than using my cell phone even when the cell phone is using T-Mobil WiFi calling.

Concrete buildings are bad for WiFi and cell service. DECT seems to work better than either.

 

[KenZ71]

I use my DECT 6 cordless phone system which is plugged into a MagicJack which is in turn connected directly into a LAN port on my router.

Not perfect but I normally get a better quality call than using my cell phone even when the cell phone is using T-Mobil WiFi calling.

Concrete buildings are bad for WiFi and cell service. DECT seems to work better than either.

Much the same here. MagicJack plugged into ups and switch, plain vanilla cordless phone plugged to MagicJack.

 

[coxhaus]

This is pretty much what I have. I have a phone base station plugged into a modem VOIP modem port. The only thing is my 3 wireless APs have a much wider and better coverage than my phone with a single base station can achieve.

 

[sfx2000]

I have Bria from Counterpath (it's an iOS SIP client) - lot depends on not just the WiFi, but the capabilities of the broadband connection and the end-point that one is connecting to...

It's serviceable, but not landline quality...

DECT based cordless handsets (that's why I have in the house for the hardline) work very well - good voice quality, and impressive range and talk-time.

 

[stevech]

DECT can work better than WiFi becuase the DECT signal bandwidth is a tiny fraction of the 20 or 40MHz WiFi signal. Noise * bandwidth product - in physics. And, DECT is full duplex.

My Panasonic DECT phones work find anywhere in our 1700 sq. ft. two-story and in the back yard, down the street quite a ways, and inside much of the neighbor's house.

As I recall, in No. America, the FCC set aside a band around 1900MHz for DECT. Before that we hand shared 900MHz and shared 5.8GHz (yes, same band as 802.11a and later).

 

[coxhaus]

I have an ATT CL82313 DECT 6.0 phone set. The phone does not have near the range my 3 wireless APs have. I can set at the far end of the front of my house and my wireless works fine my phone is iffy. I can sit outside in my back yard and my wireless works but not my phone. I would rather have a phone system which ran off my wireless.

PS
Will there be a problem if all the neighbors by the same DECT 6.0 phones?

 

[stevech]

I have an ATT ....

There's yer problem!

 

[coxhaus]

The base unit is located in the middle right side of the house. I have never had a phone nor a wireless unit which would cover my house completely. This is why I am running 3 wireless APs.

 

[stevech]

I have an ATT CL82313 DECT 6.0 phone set. The phone does not have near the range my 3 wireless APs have. I can set at the far end of the front of my house and my wireless works fine my phone is iffy. I can sit outside in my back yard and my wireless works but not my phone. I would rather have a phone system which ran off my wireless.

PS
Will there be a problem if all the neighbors by the same DECT 6.0 phones?

No. The DECT standards deal with this.

 

[coxhaus]

I had Uniden DECT phones before and the ATT phones are better in my house.

 

[stevech]

very much depends on product model, not logo on the phone (e.g., AT&T), except I find Panasonic has always made/controlled their own phones and are consistently good.

AT&T's phones come from the Asian spot market.

Like A Box Of Chocolates.

 

[sfx2000]

I find Panasonic has always made/controlled their own phones and are consistently good.

Same here...

(Their UI is a bit odd, but functional...)

 

[coxhaus]

I could buy a Panasonic phone and try it but I don't think any of the DECT phones are going to reach outside at my house. My old house has too many walls with too many thick layers to penetrate.

 

[sfx2000]

DECT 6.0 runs on it's own frequency - 1920 to 1930 MHz in the US/Canada at least...

There are cordless handsets that run in ISM and UNII bands, and I would stay away from them, and I know some that run in 900Mhz... I went with DECT 6.0 just for that reason - as I was getting a lot of interference, and short range as a result on my previous non-DECT phones...

Panasonic pretty much dominates the DECT 6.0 space, and they do have dual-line models - so one can plug in PSTN (POTS) on one port, and a SIP/VOIP pad (like Ooma, MagickJack, many others) into the other port.

And FWIW - Panasonic does have their Link2Cell DECT 6.0 kits - what's nice about them is that they can pair up with Bluetooth equipped cell/mobile handsets and bridge them for voice and text...

They have a 2-Line Link2Cell DECT 6.0 kit for $149 - the KX-TG9542B - I might get one of these myself, as it ticks off just about every box I can think of...

 

[stevech]

My old house has too many walls with too many thick layers to penetrate.

Lath and plaster walls?

 

[sfx2000]

The reason why I moved over to DECT is two fold... my old 5.8GHz, while digital, transmited in the clear (no ciphering), and the second reason was that it stepped all over Ch 149 in the UNII-3 band as a narrow band high energy jammer...

DECT uses ciphering between the base and handset, and again, since it has it's own band, it doesn't cause interference for WiFi or Bluetooth...

Older non-DECT handsets - for example, my old 5.8 from Panasonic... it's right there in the UNII-3 band, 5745 to 5825 MHz

Equipment Type - Transceiver

Frequency band
Lower Channel : 5759.700MHz
Upper Channel : 5838.185MHz

Bandwidth & Channel spacing

Bandwidth: 79MHz
Channel spacing: 892kHz

Type of Modulation - FHSS​

 

[gatorback]

A smartphone with a SIP client can be very handy. Examples CSipSimple for Android. Zoiper for IOS.

I have been given iphones with shattered displays, replaced the displays and now use them a SIP handsets (among other purposes).