Answering Service

The Nature of Cordless Phones

In the earliest days, telephones used are those with a coiled wire between the base unit and the handset. Talking on this phone will require you to stay close to it to prevent one component from detaching to the base unit. But with the advent of cordless phones, you get the privilege of talking over the phone while moving freely around the house or even outside or at the backyard. This is one advantage to those who wanted the conversation within his/her privacy.

Cordless phones are basically the same with the one with coiled wire except for one thing: they should be recharged periodically by replacing the handset back to the base unit. Likewise, its base unit should be physically attached to the electrical outlet and to a telephone line as well. One disadvantage, on the other hand, is during power outage the device could render useless unless there is another device that is battery-powered to restore its service, albeit at a short period of time only.

Although it was around 1970’s when the very first edition of cordless phones was seen in the industry, it was only in 1986 where they were granted officially by the Federal Communications Commission with a 47-49 MHz frequency range. As the year progresses, cordless phones are given at a much higher frequencies allowing the device to be utilized with less interference. Today, more modern versions of cordless phone systems use a transmission signal of an average of 900MHz to almost 2.4MHz, far stronger than the early transmission signal used in the early days.

Moreover, the antenna/receiver of the phone system is much improved allowing for a clearer flow of communications. Another thing, rechargeable batteries of the cordless phone handsets are also provided with hours of talking time. Another important feature is that these advanced cordless phones are made tougher to electronically hack the system as compared to the older versions.

Your cordless phone is actually a combination of a telephone with a radio transmitter/receiver. It is composed with two major parts, the base unit and the handset. The base looks like as your normal phone as it is the component that is connected to the phone jack. It receives your incoming calls through electrical signal, from which it will be converted to a frequency modulation (FM) radio signal. The handset, on the other hand, is the component you pick up and receives the radio signal from the base. The signal is converted into an electrical signal and is transported into the speaker. When you emit a voice signal, it will be sent, once again in the form of electrical signal, across the line of your caller.

Due to the nature of cordless phones, there are three issues that you could confront with where other standard phones do not have. These are: security, range, and sound quality. As you tend to go away at a distance from the base unit, the range is affected. The range, in turn, affects the sound quality, as some interfering structures block the frequency. In the same manner, the security of the conversation might be compromised, as there can be other devices that can pick up the information.

Cordless phones are found in two basic forms: analog and digital. Analog technology used in cordless phones is more prone to receive interference from other elements tending for the signal to suffer in quality. This causes for a noisy and lesser sound quality. In addition, the signals can be picked up easily and can be interpreted by some radio scanners.

Digital technology, on the other hand, features signals that are clearer. The information relayed when used is also much safer as compared to with the analog. This work effectively as digital information is scattered in pieces in several frequencies. This makes difficult, and even impossible, to hack the information.

Thomas DeReyna is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides a news blog.
dead link Dec 28, 2006

click for top or back to Answering Service