Cordless phones: making new connections.(cordless telephones)(Product/service evaluation)

Adapting to the way today's consumers communicate, some new cordless phones can easily coexist with home networks and place calls via cellphone service or the Internet.

A growing number of phones avoid the 2.4-gigahertz band used by most Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices, and baby monitors, as well as the 5.8-GHz band used by many cordless phones. Instead, they use the 1.9-GHz band, which was recently reserved for voice-only applications. That eliminates interference with other devices, as our tests of five 1.9-GHz phones proved. Some of them also had the longest talk time we've seen, up to 24 hours.

These phones use a technology called DECT or DECT 6.0, short for Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications. GE, Panasonic, Philips, Uniden, and VTech offer DECT phones now. AT&T said its phones would be out this fall.

Many phones on the market and in our Ratings still use the heavily trafficked 2.4-GHz band. Some of them, including the AT&T phones we tested, manage to minimize interference. Dubbed "wireless network friendly" or "LAN friendly," these 2.4-GHz phones avoid a portion of the band used by Wi-Fi networks. (You might have to reset your router to use that free channel.)

A few cordless models, including the Panasonic KX-TH111S in the Ratings, can stand in for a cell phone. By placing the cell phone near the cordless phone's base, you can access wireless service via Bluetooth and use your cordless handset for cell calls as well as landline calls.

Then there are cordless phones designed to work with Internet-based phone services such as Skype, Vonage, and Packet8. These allow free calls to users of the same service and low-cost calls to any phone. Instead of a regular phone jack, they have an Ethernet jack for connecting your computer or broadband service. A Skype phone we tested, the GE 28310EE1, $150, has a regular phone jack for traditional calls plus an Ethernet jack. Software is preloaded in the phone, so you can connect it to your high-speed Internet service to make calls without a computer.

Phones that use those new technologies are just starting to arrive in stores. If you don't have to be on the cutting edge, you'll find other solid choices at good prices in our Ratings.