New technologies: Digital cordless phones
[Archive CMO Feature - Last updated: 31/08/05]
Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) is a flexible digital radio access system for cordless communications in the home and workplace. It provides for voice and multimedia transmissions. The most common home use is in the cordless telephone.
DECT phones have similar configurations to mobile phones in that they are held to the side of the head with their radiating antennas behind the ear at distances of a few cm. They communicate with a local "base station"
connected to the phone supply in the home. The communication distances are much less than with mobile phones, and normally only a few tens of metres, as opposed to several km. This means that radiated powers can be lower.
DECT phones have the same 10 mW average radiated powers as older cordless phones, and the frequencies are higher, being just below 1900 MHz instead of a few tens of MHz. The power is around ten times less than from mobile phones and exposures would be expected to be similarly lower. In fact, any device with an average power up to 20 mW cannot possibly exceed international guidelines on exposure, however it is designed or used.
