Cordless phone

Cordless phone handsets

Roaming cordless phone handsets exist which are not tethered to any particular base station, but which also do not use traditional mobile (cellular) phone networks. These most commonly use digital technologies like DECT, 2.4 GHz unlicensed spectrum, or 802.11a/b/g standards-based wireless LAN technology. Analog equivalents do exist and can provide longer reach, but with potential loss of confidentiality and voice quality. The cordless phone handset connects to a wireless access point or base station that supports the same technology. Also required is a call management function and a gateway to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This may or may not be integrated in the base-station. A Voice over IP service can be used by phones that use wireless data access points, thus using a broadband Internet connection to defer the connection to the PSTN to a remote gateway operated by the service provider.