subject: Find The Best Home Phone Deals Online [print this page] When shopping for a home phone there are a lot of options on the market today. First it helps to understand the common features before deciding what exactly you are looking for and searching for the best deal online. Using the internet is a great way to make quick comparisons between products and look up genuine customer reviews.
The traditional corded landline phone is the one we are all familiar with and the technology has changed little over the past 100 years. Some people like to keep a corded phone at home because there is no chance it will be misplaced or run out of battery. If you experience a power cut then you will still be able to use your corded phone because it does not require an electricity supply.
Nowadays most households opt for cordless telephones that make use of radio signals to transmit sound between the handset and the base. Although the cordless phones started out using analogue signals there are now a wide range of digital cordless phones on the market that improve the sound quality and signal range of the handset. These are often referred to as Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT).
Digital cordless phones still transmit through a radio signal but the sound is clearer and there is less interference. Most models will enable you to receive calls from the base to the handset up to 300m outdoors and 50m indoors. The most useful feature of digital cordless phones is that you can use up to four handsets from the same base unit. The base unit must be plugged into the phone socket but all of the handsets simply require a mains electricity supply and can be sited throughout your house.
Another common feature of digital cordless phones is "GAP compatibility". This means the digital handsets are compatible with one another so it is possible to use a handset from one brand with the base unit of another. GAP compatibility is a really useful feature if you wish to add to an existing set-up of digital cordless phones in your home.
Advanced models of digital cordless telephones incorporate some impressive features that you may find useful. Some can allow you to blue-tooth your contact list from your mobile phone and send SMS messages. Others have an automatic night time mode that adjusts the ring tone volume when it is late at night and some models will even connect to your broadband so you can make video calls. Remember if you want to send and receive a video call with a friend then they will also require a set-up either through their phone or PC that enables them to do so.
