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4S and 5 won't work with link-to-cell cordless phones?

iTundra

iTundra

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 12, 2011
120
75
We were considering a Panasonic KX-TG7645M or KX-TG7745M cordless phone system to replace our old one. Link-to-cell a key feature. From a few reviews it appears that the 4S and 5 both have problems with WiFi interference and thus WiFi must be turned off on the 4s or 5 for them to work on link-to-cell cordless phone systems. Primary problem appears to be garbled audio (to the point it's unusable) but also ringtone pass-thru becomes unreliable. iPhone 4 and prior work OK and most other mfr's cell phones (bluetooth) work well.

One review mentioned that it's worse with WAP and as long as you're using WPA2 or similar then the problems aren't as bad though still a small problem.

Is anyone aware of this issue? Resolved? No resolution possible? Recommendations?

Thanks,
 
I have 2 versions of those phones. We got them specifically for the link-to-cell & got 2 different models so my husband & I could both be linked at the same time. We have both a land line & iPhones. For the land line functions, the phones work great. For the link-to-cell, that works ok too other than using it to talk :). Yes, the sound is garbled 90% of the time so we don't use them for that anymore. The main reason that we kept the phones for the link-to-cell is so that my husband's phones ring when his iPhone is called in the middle of the night when he's on call. He likes to charge his iPhone in our office & now he can do that instead of keeping it by the bed. The sound is usually good enough for him to answer from his bedside phone & let the person know that he's gotten the call & then he'll call back from his iPhone.

We got the phones after we'd upgraded to the 4S & we now each have the iPhone 5. The ringtone seems to work at least most of the time (I think I might have noticed a time or two when it may not have). I don't know about the wireless problem. My husband's base is the 77xx version & his stays connected regardless of whether he is on wireless or not. I have the 76xx version & I'm noticing that mine seems to have a distance problem -- the base is in the office which is right off of the kitchen but if the phone is not IN the office, even if it is just on the island counter, it will disconnect & I am never on wireless at home.

I'd say if you want the phone specifically to talk on them instead of your iPhone, then these phones are not for you.
 
Thanks Julie. Great comments. That confirms what I've read elsewhere. It seems Apple bungled the WiFi / Bluetooth radio implementation pretty bad which appears to be the crux of the problem.

I wonder if forcing WiFi to use a different channel would fix the interference and garbling problems? Or forcing to G instead of N?

I'm surprised you're having a distance problem since these are DECT 6.0 + which should work extremely well. You can get an extender that I think provides about a 3x improvement in cordless range.

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HDJulie said:
I have 2 versions of those phones.
Click to expand...
Do you know what the differences are between the 77xx and 76xx?
 
Last edited:
When I say distance, I mean between the cell phone & the base for the link-to-cell connection. The phone to base distance is fine though we did add an extender so my husband could have a handset in his man cave which is not attached to the house. That works great, too.
 
Man Cave's are important :)

Do you know if there are any differences other than color between the 77xx and 76xx?
 
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