In the battle between 2.4GHz 802.11b (“Wi-Fi”) wireless communication and 2.4GHz spread-spectrum digital phones, the phones win hands down. “Win,” as in, “Trash the signal of the other.”
(Yes, I’ve bitched about this before.)
Well, I’d finally decided to invest my birthday present from my wife (“camera replacement”) into a new 5.8GHz phone system. But she did me one better, since 5.8GHz is still limited in availability and extortionate in price. For a mere pittance, she found a 900MHz system that does 95% of what we wanted — two handsets, call-waiting at the sofa and the base station, integrated answering machine. It’s a crappy little Uniden thang, but it will tide us over until something better comes along.
It’s missing some nice features of the old Sony — running through the Caller ID info as it played the corresponding answering machine message, for example — but it’s got one small advantage, since it’s a cordless phone at the base station as well as at the remote station.
More importantly, it’s 900MHz, which means my Wi-Fi connection is safe, and I don’t need to mutter nasty things under my breath when people call and knock me offline or lock up my machine.
That’s a good point… my wifi and expensive cordless phone clash once in a while. I’ve seen very nice 900mhz phones for under $30, and from what I remember of them the signal was fine. Maybe I’ll pick one up instead of spending the same amount for a new battery in my current one.
I could imagine multiple 2.4 phones clashing, too, though they’re not supposed to.
My biggest problem with the 900MHz was that they didn’t have some of the clever goodies that the later phones did, in particular the features that this Uniden seems to have.