One of the benefits of today's technology is that you can work with people who are located hundreds of miles away without leaving your office. Pick up your telephone and you can consult with a customer in Oregon, conduct a conference call with team members in Tennessee, Maine and Ohio, or lead a teleconference for 53 paying students.

Add an internet connection, and you can give the same PowerPoint sales presentation you'd give in person – all from the comfort of your office.

Now, comfort, of course, is a relative term – especially on long phone calls. When you're on a long call, holding the telephone handset next to your ear gets tiresome. And cradling the phone between your ear and shoulder for very long is literally a pain in the neck. Once the call begins, if you realize that you left the notes for the call at the far end of your office – or out in your car, you either do without, or delay everyone on the call.

Most phones these days have a speaker phone function, but the sound can be annoying to listeners on the call. Worse, other employees in your office - and the guy who has the office suite next to yours – can hear the conversation, too.

To set it up, I PLUGGED the base unit power cord into a wall outlet, UNplugged the telephone handset cord from the telephone and plugged it into the base of the AT&T digital headset. Then I plugged a phone wire that came with the digital headset into the place on the telephone where I had unplugged the handset.

Because I'm using the TL7610 on a multiline phone line, I have to use the "lifter" mode – which means I have to lift the handset off the telephone and lay it down on the desk to use the headset. But that's a minor inconvenience. And, there is a non-lifter mode for single line phones.

The headset ear piece is light and comfortable to use. It's looks similar to the blue tooth headset for my Treo smart phone, but it's longer – long enough to put the part you speak into in a good position to pick up your voice.

One of the coolest features about the AT&T 7610 headset however, is how far away from the phone you can move and still hear clearly and be heard. With the digital headset, I can walk to the far end of the office to check for an incoming fax while talking on the phone.

In fact, the sound was so good when I was at the far end of the office, that I got curious. So, when a client I know pretty well called one day, I did a little testing. I walked out of my office and went down the hall towards the back of the building. I got to the far end, and my client and I could still hear each other just fine. Our offices are on the third floor of the building. So, next, I walked downstairs to the first floor lobby. Yup, he could still hear me. I figured I'd push my luck and walk out to my car to get something I had left there. Sure enough, my client and I could still hear each other just fine.

List price for the AT&T model TL7610 Cordless Headset is $199.95. But you can find it for quite a bit less. And, in my experience, even if you pay list price, it's worth every penny.

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