Using Bletooth link2cell landline phone

Has anyone any experience using a Bluetooth enabled cordless phone (landline) with Bluetooth hearing aids? I have been fitted with Resound Saxo 8 Power BTEs. I also have the Phone Clip+. Before purchasing these hearing aids I wore Phonak Savia Art BTEs for 4 years. I was able to use my cordless landline phone with a T-coil loop. Now my new hearing aids are Bluetooth enabled. Using the phone clip+ I can receive phone calls that are made to my cell phone, a Nexus 5 smartphone. I rarely use the cell phone for phone calls. Instead I use the cordless landline phone. I see that Panasonic has Bluetooth phones, called link2cell which I’m willing to purchase. I’m not interested in linking to my cell phone. I would just like to use the bluetooth capability of the phone for landline calls. If you have any experience with this, using a streamer such as the phone clip+, I would appreciate your advice.

I have those Panasonic phones. It works. The downside is the bluetooth part is built into the phone base station, not each wireless handset. So you are limited to 30 feet or less from the phone base.

Thanks Don. How is the sound?

The sound is good as long as you are close enough to the base. If you are about 5-6 feet from the base it is very good. If the base is in the next room it is just OK. I would recommend buying the phone set from a place where you can return it if it doesn’t work for you.

I bought the Panasonic KX-TGE273 phones. Pairing to my cell phone was easy. Pairing to the Phone Clip+ for a landline call was successful but not easy. Sound was terrible but I have my first adjustment appointment in another week. At this point I was more interested in whether it would work for landline calls. One thing I did not mention in my first post was that I have a “CaptionCall” phone that I use to help me understand speech. The transcriptions are poor, like Google automatic captions :-), but between hearing on the phone and the captioning I can do pretty well.

When the phone call started and I took the handset out of its cradle and pushed talk, pressed the phone icon on the phone clip+ the two way conversation began. I then lifted the handset from the caption phone and placed it on my desk. Captioning began as it should, but instead of the caller’s voice being captioned, it was MY voice. I don’t need to see my voice LOL.

So the Bluetooth landline use with the Phone Clip+ seems to work. I will try to get help from Customer Support on Caption Call. They in general appear to be clueless about anything except using the handset on their phones. If anyone has had success using Bluetooth headset with a caption phone I would appreciate information.

I also got the Panasonic (KX-TGE263 (all I could find @ Wally World)) BT protable phone(s) for my office.
The Phone Clip did pair up with it and I am very happy. 2 things…

There is a delay on connecting… just a thing and people get used to it.

Sometimes I am in the office for 12 hrs. straight. Keep the phone clip charger handy.
There has been a cuople of times that callls got distroted and had to charge the phone clip.
Only happened a couple of times and I have gone through a couple of phone clips, so I have extra chargers. :cool:

Thanks behappy,
Keeping the phone clip charged will be easy. The phone and phone clip are on my desk near a USB hub. I did notice the lag of a couple of seconds.

I mentioned trying to connect to my CaptionCall phone for transcriptions. I did get that to work. For some reason it is important for the person calling and the person answering (me, in this case) to be in different rooms. We were making a test call. My husband called our landline phone from my cell phone. We were both in the same room. CaptionCall got confused as to who to listen to :slight_smile: and decided to transcribe my voice instead of his. When he moved to another room CaptionCall transcribed his voice as it is supposed to.

I also noticed that if I turn the phone clip off and back on I have to go through the menu options to connect it to the Panasonic again. This whole process of connecting, pushing the numerous buttons that need to be pushed is only going to work for calls that I initiate. I am not at my desk all the time (happily retired) so a caller would give up before I got everything together to answer the call.

Still, it beats not being able to use a phone at all.

I’m pretty sure my Phone Clip+ would connect whenever I got close enough. I never had to do anything to get it to connect. Also, when answering a call all I did was press the button on the Phone Clip+. I don’t use it every day now.

Don,
You’re absolutely right. I haven’t used a phone in so long I have a lot to learn. I do have to be sure the phone clip is connected as a headset but then pressing the phone clip is all I have to do. I don’t even have to lift the handset out of its cradle. Amazing :D.
Thanks!

Hello all,
I have new Siemens Carat 5BX aids and an easyTek pendant. The system uses bluetooth to connect to landline base phone and cell phones (the easyTek acts as a mike and a remote for volume, etc - pictures here if of interest https://global.hearing.siemens.com/news/press/new-remote-control-and-smart-phone-app-for-siemens-hearing-aids/).
The problem - My phone is a single handset Panasonic KX-TG7731. Connecting (pairing) my aids to it seems to work fine, to a point. I can do everything when someone calls me (receive a call by just pushing the easyTek button, hang-up when done) but I have yet to master calling out. Anyone have some step-by-step advice? No doubt it is something simple I am missing (I hope!). I’m about 10-15 feet away so in range there.
Thank you in advance for any help!

John

The hearing aids should automatically start streaming when you make the call using the handset, but if not, press both volume buttons together on the easyTek to establish the connection.

I think you have to dial the call from the handset. I don’t know of a way to dial out from the streamer.

Don,
Although the Panasonic documentation says you should be able to make a cell phone call using the Panasonic through its link to cell function. That didn’t work for me. Do you do that? Can you give me some specifics on how to do it?

The documentation:
a. The unit can be used to talk on 2 lines at
the same time (for example, 2 cellular lines,
or the landline and 1 cellular line).
b. Only 2 Bluetooth devices can be used with
the unit at the same time (for example, 2
cellular lines, or the headset and 1 cellular
line).
c. Before making calls, confirm that the
corresponding CELL indicator on the base
unit lights up (page 15).
1 Lift the handset and dial the phone
number.
To correct a digit, press [CLEAR].
2 [CELL]

d.The unit starts dialing when:
– only 1 cellular phone is paired
Go to step 4.
4 When you finish talking, press [OFF] or
place the handset on the base unit or
charger.

I did as instructed, I think. The headset light was on and the cell light said 1.
Nothing happened. I’m missing something for sure.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

What do you do to start the cell call? With a landline you press the talk button, then dial the number. With a cell call how does that work? Do you dial the number then press talk?

Don, I’ve actually made some progress, but not quite enough. I’ll keep experimenting. Here’s exactly what I did:
I made sure that the phone clip and cellphone were connected on the Panasonic. On the panasonic base the headset light and cell light are green. I made sure the cellphone bluetooth said Panasonic Dect phone and Hearing Aid Phone were connected.

I picked up the handset. Pressed [CELL] on the handset. Dialed the number and waited. (I called my husband’s cellphone) It takes a number of seconds before it starts ringing. His phone rings. He picks it up. He can hear me but I can’t hear him. I don’t know whether my voice is coming to him from the Panasonic, my cellphone, or the phone clip. All three devices are near me at my desk. His voice isn’t coming to my hearing aids. Since he’s in another room, I can’t hear him.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with the phone clip during this process. I tried pressing the call icon on the phone clip but nothing happens except at some point the call is ended.

I’ll do a little more experimenting tomorrow. I just wish there were some sort of window on the phone clip to let you know what’s going on.

It may not make a difference but you could try this; make sure the phone clip+ is not connected to the cell phone while you are calling through the Panasonic. You want the phone clip+ to be the headset for the Panasonic and nothing else. The Panasonic is handling the fact that the actual call may come through a landline or a cell line, and using the phoneclip+ as the headset. So then, when you make a call you should be able to hear it through the handset. Then if you press the button on the phone clip+ it should take over the call. Make sure the volume is up on the phone clip+. If pressing the button ends the call then it does sound like the phone clip+ had the call.

To disconnect the cell phone from the phone clip+ you will have to go to the list of bluetooth devices on the cell phone (after making sure the phone clip+ is powered on) and make sure the phone clip+ is not connected to the cell phone.

Thank you Rasmus andDon! I tried this before, but apparently not patiently enough. This time I made sure the base showed the headset ‘green’ light, picked up the handset, picked a number out of the directory on the phone, pressed call, and while dialing pressed the volume buttons simultaneously. Did not work right away, but I recalled reading something on here about a few seconds delay. So, second attempt, holding the easyTek volume buttons a bit longer I finally heard the phone dialing ‘in my head’! I put the handset down in the base and went on with my call. Fantastic! Now I can call my family (and hear them - the sound was crystal clear!) long distance at land line rates, rather than cell rates.

Thanks Don, for the suggestions.
I made two experiments:

  1. Disconnected phone clip from cell phone. Left it connected to Panasonic. Made sure my hearing aids were connected to the phone clip by pressing the white button. Made sure Panasonic was linked to the Nexus 5. Made sure Nexus 5 showed BT connection to Panasonic. Then picked up Panasonic, clicked on [cell]. Dialed number. Chose [cell] again. Cellphone lights up and dials. Husband picks up his phone. He can hear me. I can’t hear him. Maximized volume on Panasonic, phone clip, and cellphone. Made sure volume of the phone I called was maximized. No success. I hang up.
  2. Tried the reverse BT connections with phone clip. Disconnected phone clip from Panasonic, connected phone clip to cell phone. Picked up Panasonic, chose [cell] as before, dialed, chose [cell] again. Cellphone lights up and dials. Husband picks up his cellphone but call ends itself immediately. I hear dial tone. That is the same situation I had when the phone clip was connected to both Panasonic and cell phone.

In situation 1 above, at least the phone call happens. I just can’t hear the called although the called can hear me.

Eva

I just got my new Starkey aids with Surflink and have good results calling and receiving calls from my cellphone. I have been thinking of getting the Panasonic phones for my landline and am a bit hesitant. I also have a Bluetooth adapter on my TV streamed into my aids and have a Tablet connected. I find I spend a lot of time with these Bluetooth connections, not necessarily paring but maintaining connections. My cellphone and hearing aid to a better job of keeping the connection but not the other items.

How does the Panasonic phone do for pairing and maintaining connection?

When the phone call is made, you should be able to hear the call in the Panasonic handset. If that is not happening maybe there is another problem. If that is the case, that when the call connects you cannot hear the call on the handset, then I would try this. Turn off the phone clip+ and try to make a CELL call just using the Panasonic handset.

The only thing missing in your description was pressing the phone clip+ button to take over the call once the call connects.