Link your Nokia to your home phone
Dec 06 '00
A great accessory for your Nokia (or Ericsson) Cell Phone.
The market demand for greater communications integration and flexibility has been growing as more and more people acquire mobile phones and come to rely on being connected all of the time. Many of my friends have contemplated getting rid of their land lines and using their cell as their only phone. There has always been the drawback to doing this of the inconvenience of having to have your cell phone with you at all times when you are in the house. Now there is a product available which will work with a number of Nokia cell phone models (6120, 6160-62, 5120 and 516) as well as a list of Ericsson models (in the interest of completeness here are the supported Ericsson models: T18LX, T18d, LX588, KF788, and KH668). The product is called Vox.Link and is made by a company called Vox 2. This is a great product for someone like me who literally has a phone installed in every room of the house including the bathroom (accessible from the shower or the throne).
Vox.Link
Vox.Link is a docking station for your cell phone for use when at home which connects your cell phone and cell service to the phone service in your home. It can be used to make your cell service into an extra line in your home which is accessible from all phones in your house, or it can be used to replace your traditional phone service with your cell service.
How It Works
The idea behind this device is very simple. It is a base station for your cell phone which plugs into an AC jack for power and has two phone line sockets one of which is plugged into a phone jack in your house for a typical installation. Once the unit is set up you will be able to answer all incoming calls with any phone in your house, whether the call is to your cell or to your house phone. If you have a two line phone, you are able to switch between each line (one being your cell phone service and the other being your local phone service in the house). If your phone is a single line phone there is an automatic line selector available which will allow you to access both lines from that phone as well.
Features
1. Distinctive ring patterns can be chosen to differentiate between incoming calls from your cell or your home phone (or an additional cell which you may have connected as well).
2. Charges your cell while it is in the docking station.
3. Supports callerID if enabled on your home phone (will show up on your cell when in the docking station).
4. For Nokia phones, call waiting will function as usual.
Uses
1. Acts like an additional phone line allowing you to have two phone calls active at once.
2. Use any phone in your house to access your cell service which allows multiple people to participate in a phone conversation in your house or allows you to put a cell phone call on a speakerphone.
3. Allows you to convert your single line home phone system into a multi line system.
4. Can be used to replace your traditional phone service with your cell service while maintaining all the conveniences of having phones all around the house.
General Comments
This is a very simple device with a pretty basic functionality which however provides a considerable convenience if you’re a cell phone user with a land line at home. The company touts replacement of your traditional phone service with your cell phone service as being a cost savings, but that isn’t the case where I live yet. Therefore keeping both services in place and enjoying the convenience of having them linked is my current choice.
The construction of the unit is of fairly cheap feeling plastic, but it is after all a base station which isn’t expected to be moving around and thus it’s construction should prove completely satisfactory over time.
Drawbacks
The only drawbacks are related to the product being so new. The first hurdle is that the Vox.Link requires a free repair before it can be used which I’m sure will be fixed after the first production batch is sold through. Being free this is more of an inconvenience than anything else and it should become a non-issue if you can get the reseller to take care of that as a condition of purchase.
Price (249.00 US) is another thing which should improve in a very short period of time as competition is already beginning to make itself known as Flosys, Axcel, and Motorola all have products either available or in the works which are based on the same idea of connection your cell to your land line.
The final drawback in my opinions is that these units are a little bit hard to find as they are so new. Large electronics outlets and cell phone service providers should be your first point of inquiry for availability in your area.
A nice gift for someone who is a heavy cell phone user and appreciates products which are cutting edge.
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dmezzer
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Member: Don Mezzer
Location: Northeast
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