Dock-N-Talk is a device from Phone Labs that allows a cellular phone to be used in place of home phone service. The cellular phone is plugged into the small device, which is then plugged in to a home phone jack. Up to five phone jacks in the home will then be able to place and receive calls using home telephones, sharing the cellular connection. Dock-N-Talk is a onetime purchase and has no recurring expense. The cellular phone will recharge while connected to Dock-N-Talk. More than 2,000 brands of phones are supported.

On the Other: Several Limitations

Dock-N-Talk is not compatible with fax or modem tones. At a list price of $199.99, Dock-N-Talk is fairly expensive, particularly considering only one phone can make a call at a time. Thus, a lower cost alternative is to simply hand the cellular phone to the person who needs to use it. Call quality, or indeed the ability to make calls at all, is entirely dependent on the cellular phone receiving a clear signal. Calls made using Dock-N-Talk will expend minutes on the user's cellular phone plan.

Bottom Line

Dock-N-Talk shares a cellular phone service throughout a home, which can be convenient for homes that have multiple phones throughout multiple rooms and no landline service. However, fax or modem users cannot use Dock-N-Talk for those purposes. Only one cellular phone can be connected at a time. That, combined with the expense of the device, makes Dock-N-Talk more of a convenience than necessity. However, Dock-N-Talk works well where cellular reception is clear, and only one voice line is needed.

Source:

Phone Labs: Dock-N-Talk

CNET Review: Dock-N-Talk