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cordless phones
yeah, microwave ovens are 2.54 GHz, but they're also unstable, sloppy, dirty and huge from a radio perspective. They're great at heating food. sort of like trying to have a conversation next to a jackhammer.
I can't give you any specific advice about which phones work better, a lot of it depends on the choices made by the phone designers (and the accountants). The name brands do usually try to avoid embarassing themselves.
even though I do this kind of thing for a living, when it comes to consumer stuff, I'm trolling the reviews on amazon and epinions, just like everyone else. I usually wait for 6 months or so before jumping to a new technology or until I read that something really kicks ass, or I can't control my geek urge.
glatt, the 5.8 GHz phones not working in the same room sounds really wrong..were they a reputable brand? (2.4 GHz spread spectrum panasonic in our house, but we are not frequent phone users, so don't encounter much interference). Ebay might be your best friend for finding replacement 900 MHz phones...Digital might work a bit better than analog, properly done it works a lot better.
Don't put all of the blame on the phones. over time, microwaves get their doors slammed a lot, and the RF shield gaskets may loose their coverage so that the oven leaks a bit more. The safety standards are pretty convervative, so there's little exposure risk (as life risks go) unless your teenager decides to turn the oven inside out in an effort to make a death ray and zap the neighbors cat. But the increased leakage levels will play havoc with other users of the same frequency band (Wi-Fi, cordless phones, wireless video cameras, RC control links, etc)
there are cheap ($30) microwave leakage detectors on the internet, but I have no idea how reliable they are. I personally use stuff like that at work, but we spend a lot of money on it, and it still takes experience to acheive professional results (that I'm willing to bet my paycheck on, anyway)
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