I used to have a 900mhz cordless phone which I could walk to the barn with 150ft from the house. We could take it when mowing doing yard work or having a picnic. Well it died and I bought a 5.8ghz. Made by uniden from staples with 5 cordless units I thought this will be great one in the barn, one on the porch and so on these phones work great inside the house but won't work if you go more than 5ft of the porch and won't work when on the deck on far end of the house. The guy at staples told me that they quit making the 900mhz. Because the clarity wasn't good enough and that we have given up the distance for clarity. Is this true? Can anyone tell me if this guy is blowing smoke up my @## or is this fact. What I would like to have if someone sells such a thing is a set of cordless phones that will reach out 125ft and up I don't have any neighbors within 1/8th mile so no problems there and because I live in "rural america" I can't get cell service at home.
Thanks in advance for you help
DRM57

The 900 MHz band is needed for other things. The lower the frequency, the longer the range. 5.8 GHz won't interfere with microwaves and WIFI and that's part of the reason for the switch.

Microwaves are somewhat directional, but it depends on the antennae. Aluminum siding, bricksand dense materials will interfere with the transmission.

Probably your only solution is to try upgrading the antenna to an omnidirectonal antenna somewhere. You may also have to add a bi-directional pre-amp such as tis one: 5.8GHz Bi-Directional 1 Watt Amplifier - Bi-directional Amplifiers - Fleeman, Anderson & Bird, Corp. (http://www.fab-corp.com/product.php?productid=3207&cat=269&page=1)

To get things to work. It also depends on the phone because it may need to be modified to get to the antenna connections on the base which will probably be against FCC rules.

You do seem to have a good gripe.

There are some other technologies out there like cell phone systems which will use a base and use the Internet and/or WIFI when close to home. Your carrier just has to support it. I believe the Apple iPhone will also support WIFI, but you may have the same signal problems, but at least in this case you can add repeaters and do everything in a legal way. I "Think" t-moble" has a base station and service which will receive cell phone signals and repeat them over the internet.

The BEST long range phones I know is made by Engenius, You can add the External Antenna and get EXtreme reach. Due to the Home installed, it could not be outside.
I installed in Attic. This house on a Golf Course was next to the Green, I walked to where the Tee was, Maybe 300 yards?? went further before it started losing signal. Nice
Plus you can take the handsets shopping, camping, and have walkie talkie type communication, except it is Full Duplex, Both parties can speak at the same time, like a regular Telephone. Very Nice
1 thing, the buttons were too hard to press, they gave me the system. Very Nice Person/Millionaire.