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Does the BT Essential Digital Home Phone have better sound quality than DECT cordless phones?

Elms — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 04:12:14 GMT

I understand that the BT DECT phones which work with BT Digital Voice (the Essential Digital Home Phone and the Advanced Digital Home Phone) connect directly to a DECT wireless system contained in the BT Smart Hub 2 router.

My question is: do these BT DECT phones offer better audio quality than regular DECT phones? The original DECT engineering standard (which was introduced in the early 1990s) never provided very good sound quality, and I've always found that a corded phone provides clearer more natural sound than any cordless DECT phone.

So I wonder if the BT DECT phones that connect to the Smart Hub 2 offer any higher audio quality over that of regular DECT cordless phones? The specification for these BT DECT phones says that they have "HD Voice for excellent sound quality", which suggests the sound quality might be higher. But if they still use the DECT standard, is it actually possible to get any improved audio quality from this standard?

I appreciate that BT Digital Voice itself offers higher sound quality than the analogue phone network. But I am asking about the sound quality of the BT DECT phone wireless connection to the Smart Hub 2.

Another question: I heard some reports that the indoor range of these BT DECT phones is not very good, and that you are better off sticking with any existing DECT cordless phone that you may have, because the BT phones may not operate at the other side of the house. Is this true?

Another question: my existing Gigaset cordless phone has a setting (the ECO Mode Plus) which disables the wireless signal from being constantly transmitted 24 hours a day. I understand that DECT base stations will normally transmit a wireless signal all the time, even when not in use. From the health perspective, I would prefer not to be bathed in wireless transmissions all day long. So I wonder if the BT DECT phones and Smart Hub 2 have a similar mode to the Gigaset's ECO Mode Plus, which disables the wireless signal from being constantly transmitted.

One final question: once I have BT Digital Voice operational, is there any way to automatically record all incoming and outgoing telephone calls? I ask this because my elderly parents are hard of hearing, and sometimes they receive important calls (such as from their doctor), but do not hear or understand everything that was said during the call.

If it were possible for me to later listen to automatic recordings of calls they receive, I could check that they had not missed important info.

Re: Does the BT Essential Digital Home Phone have better sound quality than DECT cordless phones?

jac_95 — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 04:00:02 GMT

Hi Elms,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community.

This is an automated response as I can see you have a question about BT’s Digital Voice service. Rather than waiting for a response from the Community, you may find an answer to your question by using the search bar on the Community homepage. We also have a thread that contains a wealth of info related to BT’s Digital Voice, click this link to take a look, Digital Voice FAQs.

To learn more about the nationwide change to this Internet based voice service visit landlinesgo.digital

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Re: Does the BT Essential Digital Home Phone have better sound quality than DECT cordless phones?

Andy005 — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 06:32:51 GMT

Hi @Elms

The sound quality is better but will only be HD quality if both ends of the call are capable, which as far as I know means that for a mobile call for example, it will only be HD if the mobile call is on the EE network. There used to be a BT page that explained the requirements but it's either been removed or buried somewhere.

You won't get HD call quality if you don't use the BT digital handsets.

The location of the router within a property will obviously affect the range, mine is in the front corner and in my 3 bed house the range is adequate. The handsets do beep when they are going out of range, I don't think my previous dect phones did that so I can't tell if the range is any worse or not.

I haven't come across an Eco mode in the Settings so I don't think that option is available on DV.

I have no idea on your final question, although if it can be done on on non DV then I assume it can be done on DV as you can use the green socket on the back of the hub.

Re: Does the BT Essential Digital Home Phone have better sound quality than DECT cordless phones?

Jane2018 — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 21:17:42 GMT

I will be interested to see too when we are moved to DV - my corded phones are miles clearer than the dect thing I got rid of so I am hoping I just plug the corded phone to back of new modem and quality will be as good as current corded hpone