Today I am talking about DECT and Wi-Fi Technologies, and who I think will win out in the end in an endless battle for supremacy. This idea came about after reading a VoIP-News.com article (SNOM Brings m3 DECT Phone to U.S.). The article shows that DECT is a technology that has worked well in the European market, and that it is just now starting to hit the U.S.
DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) uses base stations and SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) to connect to your VoIP PBX. Think of it this way; your cordless phone at home has a similar base station to charge and receive signals to talk to your old analog phone lines. The technology works pretty much the same way, but instead of an analog signal it’s using digital to talk to a VoIP phone system. Pretty easy to understand that way. Now, expand on that thought and think about multiple phones on one base station. That is what this technology is giving the digital world.
Then there is Wi-Fi. Good ol’ Wi-Fi. What isn’t there to love about wireless signals that can be used to talk to computers, phones, and other goodies? With Wireless VoIP technology you have an access point, or a “Hot Spot” (like Starbucks) and access to the World Wide Web. That too is pretty easy to understand.
Now that you have a very basic understanding of the concepts that run both DECT and Wi-Fi you should also understand the cons of such technology.
DECT runs on 1880 MHz-1900 MHz to where as Wi-Fi runs on 2.4 GHz. What does that mean you ask? Well because DECT runs on a different frequency than traditional Wi-Fi, you will get no interference on your cell phone, computer or anything else that needs the Wi-Fi frequency for broadcasting. Also, if you have too many applications on a Wi-Fi network you may start to see a decline in QoS (Quality of Service) on some or all of the products on your Wi-Fi network. (WINNER = DECT)
And there is also battery life to consider. DECT, because of its lower frequency and better batteries has an amazing life. To where as Wi-Fi Phones do not. For example, Spectralink Kirk DECT phones have a 20-hour talk time and a 200-hour standby time. That’s right; there is no typo in what I just wrote. Or you can go with Wi-Fi and have (if you’re lucky) a three-hour talk time and a 50-hour standby time. And that is with the Linksys WIP 330 to which is one of the better phones on the market. (WINNER = DECT)
To wrap this up we need to look at access points and the base stations. These are the backbone of any network, and these are how the units get the information needed to communicate to an IP PBX. Wi-Fi has an easy to set up wireless access point, such as the Linksys Wireless routers. They are cheap, and very easy to setup. Then there is the base station for the DECT phones. Not as easy to setup, but still pretty simple; I would estimate about double the amount of time taken with Wi-Fi access point will be taken on the base station, and also they are not as cheap.
A typical Wi-Fi station setup will cost $69.95 to $165 for a Linksys Wireless router and another $210 for the WIP 330 unit, Total being in the range of $270 to $350.
For a Polycom DECT, setup will cost $344.99 for the Base station (Called Server 500) then another $414.99 for the KIRK 5020 Phone.
Snom has a bundle package available called M3 for $244.99 that comes with one phone and the base station. This can hold up to eight phones on the same base station.
So, if price is your biggest concern then I would call Wi-Fi the winner, if it’s not, and you want a nice system that is reliable, and doesn’t interfere with your current wireless network, then I would say DECT wins. (WINNER= DRAW).
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I have chosen a great new consumer product for my soho setup: Siemens S675IP is a DECT phone that "mixes" one regular analog phone line with up to 6 SIP providers or extensions. The base taks up to 6 handsets and acts as an answering machine on any of the lines you wish. This phone also does Jabber and RSS to some extent.
The bottom line is that even my wife and business partner likes this phone. It works very well with our 5 SIP accounts and does exactly what we need for about 180 euros with two handsets.
I'm sure this phone is a sign of great things to come for a VoIP/traditional environment.
Thank you for your comment. I will take some time to do my research on this product and hopefully we can expand out product line with this Siemens DECT solution.
Unfortunately, Siemens VoIP products are not available through US distribution, nor did they have plans to release any of their VoIp products here when I got on my knees and begged them to about 8 months ago.
They have a bunch of unique products, too bad we can't get them here.
Thank you for the update Cory. It is a shame that we cannot get some of these products that the Euro market is just drooling at the mouth to use, but thats business.
I've been happy with snom's m3. I've had it since early January. It's on fault is that the contact list can't be provisioned remotely. If they'd address that then I'd stop looking at other devices altogether.
I've never had a Wifi device that was anywhere near as reliable as a DECT phone. There are always range, coverage and battery life issues.
Cory, I knew the product wasn't *yet* available but I am amazed they wouldn't export to such a large market and I have to wonder why not?
My own doubt is that although this product is a perfect match to our soho needs, integrating both beautifully - if only someone had a single remove that ran TV, DVD, CVR and every other box).
This does have the profile of a consumer product, not a pro VoIP one. The idea of free calls between families using the gigaset.net server is very cool for average consumers.
I would think a product like this could get traction in American homes so the question is, when and who?
Personally, I'm totally uninterested in WiFi for use with VoIP, I just can't get over the extra flaky layer of possible failure it adds.
I have also argued earlier that DECT is a much better solution based on its architecture and standards, not just because a product is available. For me the most attractive part of DECT is that it provides a DATA channel that can be used for signaling and for associated services like chat. Just imagine a handset that has a screen like a smartphone. Additionally, PBX capability is built into the standards. So a single base station could provide multi-line service. Since it isstandards based, base station and handsets could be from different manufacturers. All these are academic until and unless multiple vendors bring out proucts to the market.
@Aswath
That is a very interesting idea. I could see this DECT based casual computing or streamlined computing device being very popular (I know I would use one at home and in the office...it would be great for those days when i am in meetings all day).
Personally, I am a bit miffed as to why more vendors are not releasing DECT based solutions. I know of four or five companies working on them, but the seem to be forever stuck in "development."
I think if a major player came out with a DECT based solution and really worked with VARs and end users about the inherent value of DECT, they could find themselves a huge new revenue stream.
snom technology AG (Berlin, Germany), developer and manufacturer of Voice over IP (VoIP) telephones (www.snom.com), announced (21st May) the first open-standard SIP Phone that can natively register @ Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
What does this news mean to the Microsoft Unified Communication ecosystem? Only a alternative to a Communicator Phone Experience Device (aka Tanjay), only a hybrid SIP + OCS phone?
I hope it is much more than that, it opens totally new ways of using OCS and the Communicator.
Not only communication, presence awareness, etc.. In my dreams, I see additional features in terms of instrumentation, control and automation (ICA).
At the moment the beta firmware of the snom OCS edition is available for all snom 3XX. It will allow you to register your OCS-account as one identity configured on the phone (note you can have multiple identities configured on a snom phone – e.g. for “voip-roaming”).
· You can start calls by dialing a number, enter an OCS sip account or use the integrated LDAP-client to lookup in Active Directory. This will offer you an AD-search in a configured organizational unit. The result will provide you with the phone numbers of an account or contact and also the sip-adress (msRTCSIP-PrimaryUserAddress).
· You can receive calls at a OCS registered snom phone. Note: If you wonder about audio codecs – fortunately OCS2007 offers more than only Microsoft RealTime Audio J. The real pitfalls are SIPoverTCP and NTLM for standard SIP phones. (Btw. snom phones were able to talk SIPoverTCP from their first days. A snom370 will offer also VPN-standalone capabilities.)
· You can transfer calls to a number, an OCS sip account or use the integrated LDAP-client to lookup in Active Directory, as described before.
That is all for now. Features like Presence, maybe Edge Server Support, etc. will be added later. I hope they will also add uaCSTA extension in snom phones, because this would add OCS RemoteControlCapabilities to it.
I can’t wait to see a complete snom OCS phone, also with Instant Messaging! Why I want to have IM in a phone?
Just imagine what you can do with a phone like this (or devices based on it). Some examples:
temperature-,shock-,noise-, movement-, sensors, fire detectors, factory sirens, door intercom and openers, light and shutter control, - unlimited opportunities via Instant Messaging, Presence, Location & Status Comment, in real-time.
Some of these ideas are possible right now. You can e.g. connect an Allnet Sensormeter All400 to a snom phone to get control over your facility environment via the phone.
Imagine now that a full-fledged snom OCS phone (or a device based on it) can report all the information via IM to OCS / OC-Users and with an OCS Archiving Server all reports go into an SQL-Server for additional processing.
Your facility environment will become accessible to you as a Communicator buddy. I will love to receive a communicator call from our “front door buddy”. Then talk to the visitor (maybe including video) and simply chat to the door buddy “open”. J Maybe we will also see a standalone IP-camera which is accessible as a communicator buddy – simply goes off the hook if I am calling, and in its buddy list with the correct permissions.
All that can be run on IP/TCP networks, with SIP, XML and POE.J
Summarily: The realm of possibility in Unified Communication and Collaboration will become much bigger than we can imagine today.
I’m looking forward to read your comments, ideas, etc…
Have a good weekend! Best regards,
Jan Boguslawski
P.S.: one might think I am employed at snom. But I am not. November 2006, I went crazy , trying to find a real phone (instead of UMTestTool.exe, or x-lite) that was able to call Exchange2007 UM Beta server without a pbx or gateway, just for a small customer demo. The only phone that was able to do it, was and is a snom. So I came in contact with the fabulous guys at snom.
Since I heard “Welcome, your connected to Microsoft Exchange…”, for the first time, I was infected by the UC virus.
Has anyone tried to use a GAP-compliant handset with any of the DECT VoIP solutions like the snom m3? Most of the DECT 6.0 handsets I've looked at recently say they're GAP.