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Review: Olympia Cordless DUALPhone for Skype

04:07 - Wednesday 27 July 2005 by THG Reporting Team

1. Introduction
2. Features
3. Features, Continued

Olympia Cordless DualPhone for Skype

Olympia Cordless DualPhone for Skype
Summary	Cordless phone that handles both Skype and normal PSTN calling. Requires USB connection to computer running Skype. Uses U.S. DECT standard so will not interfere with 2.4GHz wireless LANs
Update	None
Pros	• Doesn't interfere with 11b/g WLANs • High voice fidelity on Skype calls • Supports up to 4 handsets with handset-handset calling
Cons	• Can't easily tell user availability • Delete key doesn't delete • Finding correct ear position takes some practice

The DUALphone (or DU@Lphone) has been available for about a year in Europe and other areas that use cordless phones based on the DECT standard. It is a dual-mode cordless phone that allows users to make and receive calls using either Skype or PSTN phone line.

Since the FCC approved DECT for U.S. use this past April, Denmark-based RTX Telecom (the phone's OEM) decided to make a version available here. I'm a Skype user and don't like using a headset, so when I saw the company's announcement I contacted RTX who soon had a DUALphone on its way.

As an aside, the phone is commonly available under the Olympia brand name, but RTX says that the U.S. version will be sold branded just as the DUALphone. My pre-production sample came in a plain white box with a label that said "Cordless DUALphone" and "Model:RTX3055". But the included multi-language manual had "Olympia" branding and identified the product as "Model 9211 IP".