Digital Cordless Phones

(an explanation for beginners)

What is DECT?

DECT is the acronym given to the new digital cordless telephony standard available in the UK (and Europe). DECT systems are far superior to their analogue cousins in a number of respects and users of DECT are nearly always delighted with the improvement compared to an old analogue cordless phone.

Why should I want to use DECT over a standard cordless phone?

Standard analogue cordless phones can easily be listened to by anyone with a cheap radio scanner, which are freely available from Tandy, et al. DECT is digital and therefore means eavesdropping is almost impossible and very expensive to do.
DECT offers improved clarity of call and a greater useable distance compared to Analogue cordless
Most analogue cordless phones operate on one of only 8 frequencies, so interference from another phone is common. DECT uses 120 channels which means you will never suffer from interference from another handset.
Digital handset registration prevents any unauthorised handset using the base station, unlike analogue cordless phone systems.
The DECT specifications define range should be a maximum of 500m, but manufacturers always quote a maximum of 300m.
You can connect up multiple handsets on one base station providing a free method of calling other connected handsets, calls can also be transferred from handset to handset.

Are there alternatives?

CT1: This is the standard analogue system described above
CT2: Rabbit, Phonepoint, etc - first generation digital cordless handsets, not as good sound quality as DECT. 2nd hand systems can be bought, but they are not usually cheap.
other digital systems: it is possible to purchase and use illegal imported digital handsets from abroad. These are illegal on 2 points: firstly they have no type approval from BABT and secondly they also blast out a very strong radio signal which will mean that you'll be rumbled in no time at all. (And the phone may well suffer from interference from whatever is using that frequency legally.)

What is GAP?

Generic Access Protocol is a standard adopted in Summer 1996 by DECT manufacturers and this ensures that if DECT equipment is GAP compliant it can operate with any other piece of GAP compliant DECT equipment.

Who are these phones made by?

DECT has been established longer on continental Europe than in the UK so a lot of the manufacturers are based in Europe, or South East Asia where DECT technology is also becoming more and more popular. Some of the brand names may not be as widely known, so here is a little bit of background to each of the companies:
Alcatel is a huge French group covering everything from telecoms to defence electronics
Bosch, a German company is involved in engineering and electronics of many different types. In 1996 Bosch purchased the Danish Dancall group who developed many of the best selling DECT phones. This year Bosch celebrate 100 years in the UK
Hagenuk is another very long established German telecoms group nearly 100 years old
Philips: Dutch based electronics group producing some of the best DECT handsets around
Siemens is yet another very long established German telecoms group, in business since 1847, and its products have been sold in the UK for a long time now, re badged until recently as BT. All BT DECT products are now co-branded BT and Siemens
Samsung is a Korean industrial giant

(Thanks to Freedom Phones for permission to use their DECT info page.)

Check out the Comparisons Chart and our DECT Prices.
Or jump straight back to the Main Prices Menu.

Mobiles, Watford - Tel 0844 5430441
(c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Mobiles.co.uk Ltd - sales@mobiles.co.uk