Comments on: Are There Extensions for Cell Phones in Your Home?

By: Wm. Wilson

Wm. Wilson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:40:04 +0000

There is no tech reason why duplicate cell phones couldn’t exist. If one is in use, the other can’t be. Simple.

By: Jim Brown

Jim Brown — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:27:14 +0000

For the past year I have been trying to get an answer from all the Manufacturers and Cell Phone Cos. Forget Base, Magic Jack, just give me two Sim Cards with same Tel. No. When a call is received if I have not answered the Phone after 6 (or whatever) times them my Wife, Partner, Shack job, etc. will answer the phone. If I answered and the call is for her then all I would have do is press #, * or whatever and her phone would ring and she could pick up. What is the problem? Can tell you – it would take a big bit out of Cell Phone Monthly charges for multiple lines. It is technologically possible but the Companies fear the bottom line.

By: Ernie Lang

Ernie Lang — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:14:32 +0000

I just tried to patent the concept of a mobile phone extension. However I was turned down because some guy from Taiwan patented the idea back in 1999. There is no current product that does this. There seems to be a growing demand for this product as more and more people seem to be getting rid of land line phones. As a part of my patent submission, I made a prototype using an old two line phone and tapping the serial bus with the two wire connections I tapped into a modified power charger cord on my LG cell phone. It works but it is not refined technology as the speaker sound is very weak. But I’m sure that it could be made better with a little developement money and time. Of coure we would have to pay royalties to the taiwanese guy, but I really want to bring this idea to market.

By: Ryan Kenneth Hamel (techhelper1)

Ryan Kenneth Hamel (techhelper1) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:32:28 +0000

I know this is for home of a linux user but users can you Asterisk’s menu system and have the extension redirect to other phones.

By: Ash

Ash — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:06:31 +0000

Do a search for Motorola’s Home Link Cellular base station. Sometimes they are available on ebay.

The HomeLink system uses bluetooth to know when your cell is at its home location and then can use an attached cordless phone within the home.

Regards,
Ash

By: Monkey

Monkey — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:28:43 +0000

The only way in which this would work is with the following possibilities:

1. The phone supports WiFi. If it does, then technically you could write some sort of program on the phone that would control calls and then forward them to maybe your computer, or csome WiFi networked phone (which I don’t think are available yet). This method first of all assumes it’s possible to write programs on the phone capable of controlling the call, and second, that the computer or device will be able to interpret what is sent from the phone. The best phone options for doing this would probably be the iPhone, some of Nokia’s, Blackberry’s, and the new G1. How the program works varies from phone to phone, so this option would be very tricky to implement.

2. The phone supports Bluetooth. In this situation, you could have a device that acts similarly to a bluetooth headset that can retrieve calls. The problem with this method is that the devices would have to be relatively close to the device. I’m not sure exactly how well the signal on bluetooth devices is, but I guess you could add a big antenna of some kind to improve the signal.

3. A variation on #1 would to write an phone app that simply figures out when a call is coming in on the phone, and then send it across the network to the computer. Then, do some sort of location-based setup so that the program communicates where the phone is in the house. I’m not sure if GPS functionality would really help here, since GPS doesn’t give extremely precise locations.

4. Go out and buy a dock that is in a central location of your house. Constantly remind yourself to put your phone back in the central location, and hopefully over time you will instinctively always know where your phone is.

Hope this information helped! Option 4 is, obviously, the easiest out of the rest. It would be interesting to try #1. I might try it when I get a G1 =)

By: Pete Pontius

Pete Pontius — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:02:33 +0000

I think I have seen a couple cordless models that allow you to sync the cell phone to the base phone via BlueTooth last time I was at the BigYellowPrice Tag (aka B.B.) I don’t know if it was necessary to have a land line hooked up to them or not.

By: Raymond Combs

Raymond Combs — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:34:18 +0000

The Uniden base phone (about 3 years old) had Blue-Tooth capability to sync with your cell phone. Within about 20 feet of the “base”, your cell phone was connected to the base (if your cell rang – you could answer it on a regular house phone!). Farther than 20 feet it became a cell phone again. It has been discontinued – not enough buyers to make it profitable! A shame! Mine died and there is no replacement.

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:36:15 +0000

Ronni, Chris,

There are a number of cordless phone systems you can purchase that are bluetooth enabled. Do a Google search for ‘cordless phone bluetooth’ and you will see a number of them. Panasonic (KX-TH1211B), AT&T (EP5632), GE (28129FE2), Vtech (LS5145) all make bluetooth cordless phones that will allow you to answer calls from (as well as make calls with) your cellular phone.

- Marc

By: WPBranham

WPBranham — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:08:59 +0000

We canceled our land line a while back and we both use blue tooth headsets when the above mentioned problems arise. So far we are very happy with our cell-only home. This is a simple, available method, but I am sure there are or will be better ideas to come; and I will look forward to them as well.

By: Jeff Geiser

Jeff Geiser — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:44:17 +0000

Maybe the bluetooth enabled phones are a good option.. they connect with your cell phone and come with a couple of extensions.

The GE Cell Fusion Cell Manager is an example.. I think it is around $90 and available at places like Circuit City..

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:30:40 +0000

I am the reverse of this. Cell reception sucks most places in my house and I would love to be able to put my cell phone in one of the spots that work and be able to answer it from a handset in a room where it doesn’t.

Is a cell phone repeater/booster available? something I can mount on my roof to improve reception anywhere in my house?

By: Russ Smith

Russ Smith — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:41:05 +0000

Have you tried MagicJack? Check it out at MagicJack.com.
Unlimited calls for $20/year. Works great.
I dropped my Time Warner phone service

By: Paul gilbertson

Paul gilbertson — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:16:08 +0000

http://www.xlinkgateway.com/bttn.html?brc=Adword_Xlink_Buy_Direct&gclid=COnH0eyc3pYCFQkiagodsh4v2Q

The XLink gateway is pretty good. I wouldn’t say excellent, but it keeps me from having to run around the house, yard, garage etc to find my cell phone. It rings all my extensions.

It is great to have.

Paul

By: Chris Monsma

Chris Monsma — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:39:08 +0000

That’s what I’ve been waiting for as well. My ideal scenario would be to replace our home phone with a cell that stays docked to provide the standard phone extensions as Ronni suggests. Then I could have add-on family phones for my wife & I to carry throughout the day. We need a phone that rings to the house with multiple pickup points for our kids & babysitters. None of the current options is terribly convenient or cost-effective – but if you could dock a cell phone in this way it would be fantastic. Well, other than the fact that our reception isn’t great – maybe the dock could provide an enhanced antenna as well…