Cordless telephone with voice announced calling party identification

A cordless telephone includes a base unit, a handset, a ring detector in the base unit for detecting ringing signals on a telephone line of an incoming telephone call from a central telephone office, and a line interface in the base unit for detecting the presence of caller information in the incoming telephone call, the caller information including at least a caller's telephone number. A caller identification detector in the base unit, connected to the line interface and to the ring detector, detects the caller information responsive to the ring detector detecting the ringing signals, and converts the caller information in the incoming telephone call to an identification signal. A speaker is provided in the handset. A speech synthesizer in the base unit converts the identification signal to a synthesized speech signal and transmits the synthesized speech signal to the speaker. A first controller in the base unit controls the ring detector, the line interface, the caller identification detector and the speech synthesizer such that at least the caller's telephone number is announced over the speaker in real time at the time of reception of the telephone call. Transmission/reception units are provided in the base unit and handset for transmitting signals between the base unit and handset.