Cordless home phones that also link to Cell phones

[Lazybones]

Since my home cordless phone packed it in again I picked up the GE DECT Dual Handset Cordless Phone - Black - TC28127FE2 for $39.99 at LD.

These are fairly basic looking phones with one new trick, the base station can pair with up to two cellphones as a bluetooth headset, effectively making your cellphones lines on the home phone system.

Right now I have my Voip line, plus both the household cells bound to it. This is handy since you can choose to make outgoing calls via a cell if someone is using the main line, and the cordless phones will ring when incoming cell calls come in.. The call display clearly indicates if the call is coming from the land line or a specific cell phone.

I have been contemplating putting one of our cell phones on an unlimited local calling plan and ditching the Voip/home line altogether.

[Thorin]

That is a really cool idea, to link your mobile handset to your landline.  You say it's via Bluetooth?  How's the distance?  Does your mobile handset work everywhere in the house via the landline?

I've been wanting for years to reduce the number of phones I'm paying for, but the problem I've always had is that if we use someone's mobile phone as the house phone and that person goes out and takes their phone, there is then no phone at home to make emergency calls from.  This isn't a problem until you have kids that might stay home alone but don't have their own mobile phones, or if said kids stay home alone and have mobile phones but need to call 911 and for some reason can't remember their address.

[Lazybones]

Just to be clear, calls can be placed:

Cordless ->Landline
Cordless ->Cell 1 or 2
Cell -> Cordless
Landline ->Cordless
You can't use your cell with the land line/POTS.

The system will connect to 1 POTS and 2 cellphones via bluetooth. The cell phones must be within about 10 to 20 feet of the base station (not the cordless handsets), so placing it within range of where you charge your phone might be a good idea.

When you place a call you can just hit send to use the POTS, or click the CELL soft key to choose one of the two cellphones if they are currently in range. It will automatically connect to the handsets when they are in range.

The only downside I have seen so far is that if you answer your cell directly  while paired it will default its audio to what it thinks is a headset.. Depending on your phone this may or may not be easy to correct so it is best just to answer the cordless when home.

If you are looking to save money on the cell bill Rogers does offer a VOIP router to divert cell calls and make them unlimited but from what I have seen they have priced it out of useful ness.