SmallBizResource Blog -- Business Know-How

AT&T's Digital Headset Goes The Distance

Posted by Janet Attard, Courtesy of Business Know-How Friday, Feb 13, 2009, 09:20 AM ET

One of the benefits of today's technology is that you can work with people who are located hundreds of miles away without leaving your office. Pick up your telephone, and you can consult with a customer in Oregon, conduct a conference call with team members in Tennessee, or lead a teleconference with 53 paying students.

Add an Internet connection, and you can give the same PowerPoint sales presentation you'd give in person -- all from the comfort of your office.

Now, comfort, of course, is a relative term -- especially on long phone calls. When you're on a long call, holding the telephone handset next to your ear gets tiresome. Cradling the phone between your ear and shoulder is literally a pain in the neck. And once the call begins, if you realize that you left the notes for the call at the far end of your office -- or out in your car -- then you either do without or delay everyone on the call.

Most phones these days have a speaker phone function, but the sound quality can be annoying to listeners on the call. Worse, other employees in your office can hear the conversation, too.

Fortunately, there is a solution. A cordless headset. One I really like is AT&T's TL7610 Digital Cordless Headset. The unit is compact, easy to set up, and works with the multiline voice over IP telephone system we have in the office.

To set it up, I plugged the base unit power cord into a wall outlet, unplugged the telephone handset cord from the telephone, and plugged it into the base of the AT&T digital headset. Then I plugged a phone wire that came with the digital headset into the place on the telephone where I had unplugged the handset.

Because I'm using the TL7610 on a multiline phone line, I use the "lifter" mode, which means I have to lift the handset off the telephone and lay it down on the desk to use the headset. But that's a minor inconvenience. And there is a nonlifter mode for single line phones.

The headset ear piece is light and comfortable to use. It looks similar to the Bluetooth headset for my Treo smart phone, but it's longer -- long enough to put the part you speak into in a good position to pick up your voice.

One of the coolest features about the AT&T 7610 headset, however, is how far away from the phone you can move and still hear clearly and be heard. With the digital headset, I can walk to the far end of the office to check for an incoming fax while talking on the phone.

In fact, the sound was so good when I was at the far end of the office, that I got curious. So when a client I know pretty well called one day, I did a little testing. I walked out of my office and went down the hall toward the back of the building. I got to the far end, and my client and I could still hear each other just fine. Our offices are on the third floor of the building. So, next, I walked downstairs to the first floor lobby. Yup, he could still hear me. I figured I'd push my luck and walk out to my car to get something I had left there. Sure enough, my client and I could still hear each other just fine.

The list price for AT&T's TL7610 Cordless Headset is $199.95. But you can find it for quite a bit less. And, in my experience, even if you pay list price, it's worth every penny.

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