DECT Range Extender

[WorriedParent]

Good evening,

I have a BT8600 system with 5 handsets which works perfectly except in rooms furthest from the base station.

Is it possible to extend the range with a repeater, preferably BT branded, please?

There is some confusion on the websites I've visited around whether these work with the BT8600 or at all.

Many thanks in advance. 

[rbz5416]

I don't believe current BT branded handsets support repeaters & I've certainly not seen a BT branded one. Best bet would be to ask one of the specialist telephone retailers such as Ligo or PMC Telecom.

[Les-Gibson]

Do you mean something like this?

Forum rules forbid me from providing a link but Google knows all about "DECT range extenders", then again you could just do an image search

[WorriedParent]

There are certainly BT extenders available like this one: BT DECT Repeater | BT Help

and various other brands on Amazon and eBay.

What I'm unclear about is whether my BT8600 system will work with any of them.

If it's just a repeater, I would have thought it just boosts any DECT signal it receives?

[licquorice]

I think they will work with 'conventional' BT DECT phones but not with DV handsets for some reason. Possibly where the confusion arises.

[rbz5416 · Accepted solution]

@WorriedParent 

When BT first started selling DECT phones under the Diverse name around the mid-nineties, they were simply rebadged Siemens products. The repeater you have linked to is almost certainly also a Siemens product from around that time. These products had a specific setting in the base to pair a repeater.

When BT ceased this arrangement with Siemens, as well as a huge drop in product quality, the repeater function was also dropped. Here are the pairing instruction from a Diverse 6210 I used to have:

You will not find those instructions for your 8600, which is why I specifically referenced current BT handsets.

[WorriedParent]

Many thanks to all who have replied.