Choosing the Right Wireless Headset System For Your Office Phone

What are the differences between 900MHz, 1.9GHz, 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz?

So, in theory, 5.8GHz would be the best quality wireless headset, and 900MHz the worst. Unsurprisingly, there are some very important issues to consider though, that really cloud this simple model.

First, the location that you use your wireless headset system is not a test environment. There are likely many, many wireless devices (your cordless phone, your wireless network, baby monitor, wireless game controllers etc) all crowding the same part of the spectrum. This can cause range to reduce dramatically as the signal gets washed over from other devices. It can also cause other devices to fail entirely if they aren’t intelligent enough to switch channels. For instance, one of the largest user concerns we receive for our 2.4GHz models, is that they can interfere with wireless networks. In some situations (like, my house for instance!) answering or initiating a call on a 2.4GHz wireless headset, completely disables the network connections within a few yards. Similarly the local environment can impede or interfere with the signal between the wireless headset and the headset base-station. Domestic microwave ovens spew out an immense amount of interference, perilously close to the 2.4GHz band. This can appear as static in the signal (and your ear) or less annoyingly can just reduce the range of the headset. Wireless signals also don’t travel well through walls or at all through metal surfaces, further reducing headset roaming range, and these factors weigh more heavily against the lower frequency headset systems.

Secondly, the type of connection plays a role, with many technologies in use today – Analog, Digital, DSS (Digital Spread Spectrum), FHDSS (Frequency Hopping Digital Spread Spectrum) and DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications). These are all strategies and technologies that improve the range and reduce the interference of the headset. Of these, Analog systems will provide the worst performance, with DECT headset systems providing potentially the best performance, and everything else falling somewhere in between, in the order listed above.

Before you consider going ‘up’ in frequency, you should first, or perhaps equally consider going ‘up’ a notch in technology. For instance, it is our opinion that a 900MHz Digital headset performs better than a 2.4GHz analog headset, and that a 900MHz DSS headset outperforms a regular 2.4GHz digital headset.

Other factors to consider are that although the newly opened 5.8GHz spectrum should offer the best performance for wireless headset systems, unfortunately at the time of writing (mid-2006) neither of the major headset manufacturers GN Netcom or Plantronics offer any solutions. We feel it’s only a matter of time before one of them takes the plunge and invests the millions of dollars needed to develop headsets at this frequency. When they do, headsets are likely to be costly – in the same way that recently released 5.8GHz cordless phones are significantly more expensive than their 2.4GHz counterparts.

Finally, in all of this, DECT headsets all operate in the 1.9GHz spectrum, and in fact the spectrum forms part of the DECT specification.

So, with all these conflicting issues what should you buy? Well, we think the technology hierarchy goes something like this (from best to worst)

Technology Hierarchy for Wireless Telephone Headsets

1. 5.8Ghz DSS or FHSS
2. 1.9GHz DECT
3. 2.4GHz DSS or FHSS
4. 900MHz DSS or FHSS
5. 2.4GHz digital
6. 900Mhz digital
7. 900MHz analog