Let me be completely clear about this….it’s not often that manufacturers just send me stuff (disclosure statement). After almost 600 posts to this blog I’ve managed forge a few good relationships with manufacturers, but in most cases I simply buy whatever hardware I truly need, and that’s what I get to write about.
This being an especially Monday-like morning I found myself distracted by the box from Gigaset, and specifically the Gigaset One interface device. It occurred to me that this device is a lot cheaper and possibly more convenient than the Portech MV370 GSM-SIP interface that I installed two years ago. The Portech box was around $300 all-in whereas the Gigaset One can be found online in the $80 range.
The One, if I may call it that without sounding too Matrix-y, connects to a cellphone using Bluetooth. Once connected it mimics a headset. Calls to that cell number are routed to the RJ-11 jack on the One.
An analog phone connected to that RJ-11 jack can also make outbound calls on the cell phone. If you have an existing POTS line that can be passed through the One, so that don’t give up your analog capability.
The Gigaset One essentially turns a Bluetooth capable cell phone into a wireless trunk for your home phones.
I poked around online and found that back in February TWiT had a mention of the Gigaset One in Daily Giz Wiz #1018.
Since our home phones are a Gigaset A580IP system they have a connection for one analog POTS line, although we don’t have even one POTS line coming into the property. This very fact gave me the opportunity to connect the Gigaset One device to our home phones.
I started this little adventure by hunting down my old Blackberry Pearl 8100, which is Bluetooth capable. I removed the SIM card from the Portech MV-370 and put it into the Pearl. Then I paired the Pearl with the One.
In just a few minutes I was able to bring cellular calls to my second number into the A580IP. Here’s a picture of my cobbled together little test rig.
I’ve decided that as an experiment this week I will leave this little test rig setup and use it to call home when I’m in Austin the next few days. Like the earlier GSM gateway project, the goal is to use my T-Mobile unlimited free mobile-to-mobile minutes when I’m calling home from afar.
I’ll let you know how it goes in about a week. Oh yes, I will get around to something about the newer Gigaset handsets, too. Over this past weekend they both officially passed my local spousal approval test.