Can My Phone Interfere With Wireless?

It seems like your internet goes down regularly. You thought it was just a coincidence, but now you are noticing a pattern - it seems to happen every time you use your cordless phone! Is that possible?

Cordless Phone Bandwidth

• Today, most newer home cordless phones run at a bandwidth of 900 MHz. The bandwidth is essentially the "channel" the phone is running on. Think of it as being like the frequency of a radio station. Each station you listen to has a frequency, such as 89.5 or 92.9.

Wireless Internet Bandwidth

• Most wireless internet routers run on a bandwidth of 802.11 MHz. As you can see, this number is not too far away from the 900 MHz that cordless phones run on.

Interference Possibilities

• Since most cordless phones broadcast at 900 MHz and most wireless routers broadcast at 802.11 MHz, the small space between them can cause one to bleed over into the other. Sometimes the frequency of the phone can spike when you are first making a call, and go into the same range as the wireless router.

Prevention/Solution

• The easiest solution is to move your phone and its base as far away from your wireless router as possible. This should lessen the interference and typically prevent it completely.