Last year Siemens Gigaset started to equip all products with so-called ECO DECT. This included cutting power consumption thanks to energy-saving power supplies and various variable functions for reducing transmitting power. Now the transmitting power is completely switched off in idle or standby mode for all new Siemens Gigaset phones with ECO mode Plus. This is possible with a new technology that enables rapid synchronization of the base station and handset when calls are made or received. In addition, the transmitting power during calls can be reduced by 80 percent in ECO mode. This interplay of the ECO DECT functions means that the phone can be tailored to individual needs in the home.

If ECO mode is enabled in the handset’s menu, the transmitting power of the base station and handset is reduced by 80 percent. This setting also applies if multiple handsets are used or when calls are being made. Technically speaking, the range envisaged under the DECT standard is cut from 50 to about 25 meters in rooms and from 300 to about 150 meters outdoors – completely sufficient for most situations in the home and also a way of saving energy.

Thanks to ECO mode Plus, the base station’s transmission power is turned off completely in idle or standby mode. The base station and handset switch into ‘wait’ mode. The two devices wait – or “listen” – for an event, for example an incoming call or a button being pressed, and then establish an active connection again out of their idle state. In the case of an incoming call, the base station enables transmission mode, and the handset synchronizes itself with the base station, rings and displays the name of the caller. In the case of an outgoing call (initiated by pressing a button on the handset), the handset emits signals to activate the base station, which then establishes the connection so that the two devices are re-synchronized. The time needed for the base station and handset to synchronize and exchange the necessary data is about 1 second. One advantage of the new technology is that the base station and handset only transmit signals when calls are actually being made. This continuous “listening” by the handset and base station results in only a slight increase in power consumption.

ECO mode and the new ECO mode Plus offer customers various means of further reducing the transmitting power of the base station and handset. Both functions can be set manually in the menu and used independently of each other or in combination.

In addition, the handsets of all Siemens Gigaset models reduce transmitting power depending on how far they are from the base station: At a distance of around eight meters, for example, the transmitting power is cut to just 15 percent, meaning a far longer standby time for the handsets. Energy-saving switched-mode power supplies in all ECO DECT phones cut energy consumption by up to 60 percent.

The new ECO functions are supported by the Siemens Gigaset AL180, AL280, A580, A380, C380 and SL780 and their variants with an answering machine