How to Strengthen Your Cellphone Coverage at Home with Link2Cell & Giveaway

Do you find that your cellphone works great everywhere else…except throughout your home?  Is there one or two good spots for cellphone reception, but the rest of the house is a dead zone?  Have you missed calls before because you are in the kitchen and your cellphone is in the office?  Or you keep your cellphone in your kitchen, but it tends to ring when you’re upstairs in the bedroom?

There are a number of different ways to carry your cellphone  signal throughout your home.  Some are more involved than others.

1. You could call your cellular company and request a tower be put closer to your home (good luck).
2. You can buy a cellular signal booster from your cellular dealer…at a pretty penny, and pay a monthly fee.
3. You could buy a cellular signal booster yourself and install it yourself.
4. Or, if your cellular carrier allows it, you can attach your cellphone via WiFi for over WiFi calls.

But there’s another way to improve your cellphone coverage throughout your home that I think is pretty easy and fascinating.  You can buy a Panasonic Link2Cell via Bluetooth Cordless Phone and link your cellphone to it.

Never Miss a Cellphone Call Again with Link2Cell

I have been a Panasonic Cordless Phone user for as long as I can remember.  I buy their answering phone system pack, where you can get the base unit and extra handsets to put around the house.  Within the last few years, Panasonic has come out with their Link2Cell technology which allows you to link your Panasonic phone system to your cellphone using Bluetooth.  Link2Cell increases the strength of your cellphone…throughout your home!

This means that you can have your cellphone downstairs and if you’re upstairs and your cellphone rings, you can just pick up your Panasonic phone upstairs and answer your cellphone remotely.  Cool, huh?  And guess what?  You can do this for up to two cellphones in the house!  Think of how you can avoid broken toes by not having to run through your house to get to your cellphone in time!  And be able to provide the same convenience to your spouse or teenager too!

Perhaps you have a no cellphones upstairs rule in your family.  This Link2Cell system allows your teenager to still accept calls upstairs from his cellphone but prevents him/her from texting and watching videos, as his/her phone is downstairs.  It’s a win-win.

Here’s the Key to Making this Work in Your Home.  

You need to ensure that you cellphone is within 2-10 feet of your Panasonic base unit (ideal for Bluetooth communication).  Than you can be sure that your cellphone signal will carry to your Panasonic phones through the house.  To accomplish this, I moved the Panasonic Link2Cell base unit from my kitchen, where I have kept my answering machine as long as I have lived, to my home office, where I live a lot.  I always have my cellphone with me in the office.  I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of keeping my answering machine in the office before, it’s really more efficient than in the kitchen.

The Panasonic Link2Cell KX-TG7742S phone comes with two handsets, one included with the base unit (with a full keypad and speaker phone attached) and one other handset with charging base, so you are really getting 3 phones in one.  I have found  that keeping one of the handheld phones off the base, without battery power, it can last several days.

Here’s How it Works

To link up my cellphone with my Panasonic KX-TG7742S phone…

STEP 1:       I brought my cellphone to the base unit.  Using the handset I browsed through menu options on the Panasonic phone until I saw the Bluetooth option.

STEP 2:     Clicking on Bluetooth, I saw the Link2Cell option, which I selected.  I then clicked on phone 1 to register it with my cellphone.

STEP 3:     Next, I went to settings on my phone, opened up Bluetooth and pressed Scan.  I saw the code KXTG77 pop up on my cellphone Bluetooth and I clicked on it to sync them.  I put in the code 0000 and they linked.

That’s it.  This process is also covered in the instructions manual.  And you can link up 2 cellphones, but if two calls come in at the same time, the first one you linked up gets priority.

Now you may be wondering, “how will I know if a phone call that comes in is from our home phone number, my cellphone, or my husbands?”  Good question.

There is no symbol or a phone symbol if the incoming call is for your home number

a C1 symbol indicates the first cellphone registered is ringing

a C2 symbol indicates the second registered cellphone is ringing

Address Book

Here’s another added benefit, because your cellphone is linked to your Panasonic Link2Cell phone now, you can easily transfer over your cellphone phone book!  Now you don’t need to hand type in each of your important numbers.  But be forewarned, I recommend taking the time to hand select the phone numbers you’d like on your home phone, otherwise your Panasonic Link2Cell phone will be inundated with hundreds of phone numbers, and although you can press a number 5 on the keypad to get to the K’s, if you have a lot of people with their first or last names beginning with K’s, you have a lot of scrolling to do (not that I happen to know this from personal experience or anything!  Ugh).

Another feature I like is that you can name the phones.  In the past, I’ve used up to 5 handsets and they are all numbered 1 through 5.  I often forgot which phone was supposed to go to which room.  Now, it’s easy, as I can name each phone…

The Panasonic KX-TG7742S Link2Cell answering machine with one handset sells for $81.99 plus free shipping through Panasonic.

Win It!

We are excited to announce the giveaway of a KX-TG7742S Link2Cell phone system for your family!!  Sign up below for your chance(s) to win a Panasonic Link2Cell answering machine with one handset, a $81value (new low price, was recently listed at $89.99).  Increase your cellphone coverage in your house with this little beauty!

Note:  You do need to follow @PanasonicUSA to register to win.

Contest ends 4/15/2014 at 12 am.  US Residents only.  Must be 18 or over to win.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Mom’s Perspective

It amazes me how much technology can make our lives easier…as well as how much we already have available to us to make our lives more efficient, and we don’t know about it.  One of the reasons I got into blogging about technology for families was because I saw moms with great smartphones, capable of doing so much, and yet they were only using 20% of the features available on the phone.  I hoped that if they knew more about their phones, they could really harness the power of them and improve their efficiency.

I see the Panasonic Link2Cell phones in the same manner.  If you are a Panasonic home phone user, check your phone bases to see if there’s a Bluetooth symbol and word on it.  You may already have this fantastic technology and not know it.  I know for my family, this is a must have technology.

I love the fact that you can be in another room and not have to run to get your cellphone when it rings.  In fact, if you have aging parents, this is a great phone system for them.  My mother-in-law, who is 78, is up with the times.  She has had a cellphone for years and even uses it to check Facebook, check in with Foursquare, play games, take pictures, and to text.  She recognizes her cellphone as a great communication tool to keep in touch with the rest of her family and  friends.  I will be getting my in-laws a phone like this with Link2Cell, to make it convenient for her to get to the phone and not miss a call from her grandchildren.  I just love technology, don’t you?

*  I was given a Panasonic KX-TGG7743S Link2Cell phone system in exchange for this review.  All opinions are my own.