The first patent for a cordless communication device was submitted in 1966 and granted in 1969, but it was only in 1980 that cordless telephones finally came on to the market and made available for purchase by the general public for everyday use.

As might be imagined, such early cordless phones were very crude and primitive, such that eavesdropping was a simple matter of picking up the handset of another unit nearby! One could have also just used a common hobbyist’s radio scanner to drop in on cordless conversations. After all, cordless phones were just radios themselves, only operating over a very limited range of frequencies. Indeed, a cordless telephone is made up of a base and its receiver, or handset. Radio signals are transmitted between the base and receiver, and it is the frequency of the signals that determines such characteristics as their strength. By being restricted to these very low frequencies, cordless phones were limited in range, unable to offer security of any sort, and subject to interference from common household appliances like refrigerators and radios.

Nevertheless, cord-free telephoning - even if only within the confines of one’s own home - became so popular so quickly that the government was forced to increase the cap on radio frequencies many times, from the early forty-some-odd megahertz’s of yesteryear to today’s five gigahertz ceiling. But for much of its history, cordless phones were expensive and of a very fixed utility. Signals could even be lost between one end of a small apartment to the other! Yet the demand for cordless phones ensured regular improvements, and fifteen years after their introduction the security problem was finally solved, for all practical intents and purposes, with the implementation of Digital Spectrum Spread (DSS) technology. DSS caused signals to be scrambled in pieces over several frequencies so that eavesdropping was virtually impossible. Only sophisticated equipment can now pick up a cordless telephone conversation intact.

An old proverb states that the more things change, the more they stay the same, and such a notion applies in the case of expanded frequency ranges for cordless phones. For many of today’s Wi-Fi networks operate in just those same frequency bands! Higher frequencies also lead to shorter handset battery lives, not to mention hotter handsets from all the heat generated by the now-overworked batteries! But for all the shortcomings, cordless phones are still being sold almost thirty years after their introduction, not having been displaced by the cell phone just yet!

Article by William Gold. He writes about cordless phones. For Digital Cordless Phones and Cordless Telephones visit E-WorldDirect.com they have the best prices and service on the web.

[tags]Digital Cordless Phones, Cordless Telephones[/tags]