Choosing the Right Wireless Headset System For Your Office Phone

Busy Lights and Lifters

Busy Lights

When you first start to use a wireless headset, you will find that your friends, family and colleagues will walk up to you and start a conversation, not knowing that you’re on a call. While comical the first and maybe second time, this gets really old, really quickly. The universal thumb-on-ear and pinky-on-lips hand sign becomes almost painful to have to keep repeating. Save yourself the headache and get a Busy Light. This is a bright light, on a cord that plugs into the base station of your wireless headset, that signals to those around you that you are on a call. Inexpensive solutions are available from Plantronics. GN Netcom currently doesn't offer a busy light for their wireless units.

Handset Lifters

Many business desktop phones can be configured for what is called ‘on hook dialing’. This means that a button (usually speakerphone) gets programmed to connect the headset to the dial-tone, as though you had lifted the receiver manually. For may people this is good enough. However, if your phone doesn’t support on hook dialing, or more likely, you can’t decode the cryptic manual that tells you how to program it to do so, a Handset Lifter is just the thing. A Handset Lifter is a small device that attaches to the side of your phone and plugs into the base station of your wireless headset. When you wish to answer a call, or even initiate a call, pressing the connect button on your wireless headset sends a signal to the base, which raises your receiver out of its cradle, and holds it there for the duration of the call. The fringe benefit of a Handset Lifter is that you can answer a ringing call, while away from your desk. A discreet beep in your ear tells you that your line is ringing (if you are out of earshot) one press of the button, and your handset lifter lifts your handset and connects you directly to your caller, as if you were sitting at your desk. The Plantronics HL10 is suitable for most wireless Plantronics headsets, and the GN Netcom 1000RHL is designed to work with the wireless GN Netcom headsets.