Best Cordless VoIP Phone

If you are considering a switch to a VoIP home phone service, you may alse want to look into the pros and cons of a SIP cordless VoIP phone. It's possible to connect almost any cordless phone to a VoIP service using an ATA or analogue telephone adapter. They are cheap and usually pre-configured by voice service providers. On the other hand cheap or "free" ATA's always have strings attached.

One of the many benefits to be had from using a SIP VoIP cordless phone is that you are not locked into using just one service provider. There are hundreds of excellent SIP VoIP service providers to choose from. In fact depending on the destinations that you most frequently call, it can be useful to have accounts with several service providers.

Ideally your cordless VoIP phone should be a SIP phone. SIP or Session Initiation Protocol is the most widely adopted standard for initiating voice and video sessions over IP. With the exception of Skype and Vonage nearly all other providers offer SIP based services.

Latest and Best

Siemens Cordless Phones

While Cisco, Linksys and others target the corporate market with high end cordless VoIP phones, home users have largely been neglected. A range of phones from Siemens Gigaset is the exception. They have been specifically designed for home and small business use. They are dual mode phones, which means they can be concurrently used with both VoIP and land line phone services. Some users find it comforting to have the option, while others immediately disconnect their landline and never look back.

The current models include the A580IP and S675IP. Their key features include:

• Up to three concurrent calls, two over IP and one landline phone call
• DECT 6.0 phones
• Up to six handsets
• Switchable between multiple service providers
• Automated in-bound and out-bound call handling

Siemens cordless VoIP phones can be used as straight replacements for standard cordless phones, or as a mini-PBX. They are easily configured via a handset or client software to perform a range of functions.

Skype Cordless Phones

Tens of millions of subscribers are convinced that the Skype phone service is fantastic and we agree. However it uses proprietary protocols that have the benefit of providing great security, but also mean that Skype cordless VoIP phones can only be used on the Skype VoIP network. For users content with making Skype to Skype calls over a closed network it's not a problem.

Vonage Phones

The Vonage VoIP home phone service also uses a proprietary protocol. It's not a cheap VoIP service and hardware such as a Vonage cordless VoIP phone is unlikely to be compatible with SIP based alternatives.

Having used a Siemens cordless VoIP phone as our primary home phone for several years we couldn't be more impressed. We disconnected our land line phone service on day one and use a naked ADSL connections for all voice and data communication. There has been no perceptible impact on voice quality even when multiple Macs and PC's are in use. The voice clarity on these phones is exceptional. They are amongst the best cordless home phones we have used.

Siemens Cordless Phones - the coolest. Users can personalize features just like a cell phone. They can download ring tones, screen savers, pictures, contacts, firmware updates, synchronize with a PC ....

Small Business Telephone Systems - better than many VoIP business phone systems and more affordable