New good-looking cordless and 5.8Ghz around 802.11n

September 29, 2007 12:43 PM

We need a new (stylish) cordless phone for our house that will work around Apple's new Airport Extreme.

Don't like using mobile at home so we want to purchase a new landline phone. Would like some recommendations for a reliable, non cheapy, smart-looking setup that includes answering machine. My old Panasonic's buttons are failing and also it's ugly. Would love something like this V-tech but the reviews are so crappy we're passing on it.

And finally will a 5.8 Ghz phones interfere with my new Airport Extreme base station which uses the new 802.11n technology (or vice versa)?

posted by zenpop to technology (6 comments total)

5.8Ghz should be fine - 802.11n is, like all 802.11x stuff, 2.4Ghz.
posted by Tomorrowful at 2:04 PM on September 29, 2007

actually, if you set your airport to the 'n only' network option, you can have it use the 5.8ghz frequency, and then get a 2.4ghz phone...
posted by hummercash at 2:30 PM on September 29, 2007

802.11n can be both 2.4 or 5GHz, you will find that your AE has options for both.

However many wi-fi devices don't support 5GHz. (802.11a devices do.)
posted by Mwongozi at 2:32 PM on September 29, 2007

A number of manufacturers now have newer phones using DECT 6.0 (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) at 1.9 GHz. DECT 6.0 was designed to not interfere with wifi.
posted by ShooBoo at 3:14 PM on September 29, 2007

900 Mhz phones are wireless network friendly, and have somewhat better coverage than 2.4 or 5.8 Ghz band phones. The first generations of cordless phones used analog modulation on the 900 Mhz band, but newer, digital 900 Mhz systems have been released in the last couple of years, some of which are multi-station systems, with frequency hopping for security, and a full range of digital convenience features. Because of better range and coverage issues on the 900 Mhz band, such systems are popular as small office systems, too.
posted by paulsc at 3:15 PM on September 29, 2007

Second 900MHz.
posted by knave at 3:42 PM on September 29, 2007