Use your Mobile and your Land Line on one phone.

More and more folks are shifting their phone use to mobile lines and relying on a household land line less and less. As the father of two teens now away at college I can tell you todays generation never touches a land line phone.

Alas, even though the land line seems only to be the gateway for charities and other telemarketers we are not ready to go landless. I run a business out of my house and still want and need the clarity and reliability of traditional POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). At the same time I get a sizable amount of phone traffic coming in on my Blackberry that I cannot miss.

The AT&T BlueTooth enabled EP5632 is an expandable 5.8GHZ digital phone system that bridges the mobile and land line worlds. The EP5632 connects to a household land line and can connect with up to 8 separate BlueTooth phones and devices. This feature allows you take and make calls with your household wireless handset from your land or mobile lines at the same time.

How does this work? First you simply connect the base unit to your land line as you would any cordless phone. Next you pair the EP5632 to your BlueTooth enabled phone(s). Once paired, when in range mobile phone calls will wring through to the phone system as will the land line calls. This allows you to take or make mobile or land calls throughout the home on any expansion handset. When you leave the house with your mobile the connection will break. When you return the system can be configured to automatically reconnect.

Features of the EP5632 include a digital answering machine with 15 minutes of storage, and selectable ring-tones and wallpaper that may be customized to specific callers. In case this sounds too complicated AT&T flashes a light on the phoneset as well as displays caller ID and name, (if you have that service and who doesn't), to advise you which line is ringing. You also have the option to call out on the land or mobile lines. Other key features of the EP 5632 include: Expandability to up 10 12 remote phones, a directory that stores up to 100 numbers, and various conference and speaker phone capabilities.

The EP5632 does have some shortcomings and limitations to point out. Although you may pair with up to 8 BlueTooth devices only two phones may be active and only one in use at a time. Another limitation is although you may pair a BlueTooth wireless headset to the unit you can only use it to make or receive land line calls.

Other limitations I find annoying are, the phone directory for each separate handset is not shared among the system. If you expand to 12 headsets you have to maintain 12 separate directories! Images and ring-tones are not programmable. You are limited to the wallpaper and ring-tones AT&T builds into the system.

Overall I find the EP5632 a very good update of the traditional household phone system. The digital technology gives a clear sound even over the BlueTooth. Now my friends and family call my mobile line. I leave the land line for the telemarketers to deal with the answering machine. This arrangement allows me to also cut back on features of the land line like voice-mail and extended calling plans duplicated by my mobile line. I'm now saving almost $500 a year with this new arrangement. It's also a joy to not have to walk around the house with my Blackberry on my hip less I mis an important business call.

In conclusion, if you want to have both land and mobile lines in your home this is the best system to have.