Keyspan launches cordless Skype handset for PCs and Macs

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 29 August 2006 02:32

Business IT - Technology

Keyspan in the US has launched a cordless phone to work in conjunction with the Skype softphone running on either a Mac or a Windows PC, but apart from Mac support it does not stack up well against the recently-released Philips product.
Both the Philips and Keyspan products are similar in that they provide access on the handset to the Skype contact list and can receive incoming calls to Skype on the PC. And they are similarly priced: The Philips product, the VoIP321, was launched in Australia earlier this month for $A129.95  and the Keyspan sells in the US for $US79.

However where the Philips product really scores is that it is also a standard DECT-based cordless PSTN telephone: the base station plugs into the phone line and to the USB port on the PC and one button on the handset allows you to choose whether to call out via Skype or the PSTN. Because it uses DECT, any standard cordless phone handset can be used with the base station to make calls over the PSTN line. Philips also sells the VoIP433 which works similarly but with the Windows Live VoIP softphone.

Keyspan has not specified its wireless interface, describing it only as 2.4GHz, so presumably it is WiFi. Philips claims that DECT, a standard designed specifically for and used exclusively by cordless phones, gives superior voice quality and freedom from interference.

So the Philips product seems to win hands-down, except it does not work with Skype running on a Mac.