DECT cordless phones still hold sway over Wi-Fi phones
4 April 2007
Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
It is easy to see how businesses of every industry can benefit from wireless office phones: they are great for improving customer service and productivity. Nobody wants to phone the local department store if they can never reach the hardware person. Not even the receptionist is exempt - to miss several calls while making a copy is just not good business.
But which wireless solution is the best for a particular company's voice needs? Bennie Langenhoven, general manager at Tellumat Telecoms, the telecommunications division in the Tellumat Group (www.tellumat.com), says DECT cordless phones, whether analog or IP-based, are still the obvious choice. Other technologies like Wi-Fi are receiving a lot of hype, but any decision to go with Wi-Fi phones comes with important considerations. "Wi-Fi will definitely come strongly into play as a voice solution within three to five years, but right now there are too many failed installations not to conclude that it is still an immature voice solution. The handover between base stations is far from perfect, handset battery life is still an issue, and the phones are not as rugged as a mobile phone ought to be".
He adds that a decision to go with Wi-Fi involves a conversion to a converged (Internet Protocol-based) voice and data network, which involves significant planning and cost. "One needs proper network design - in some cases a business may even have to replace a data server in order to cater for quality of service and voice prioritisation. It is not a simple or inexpensive decision."
DECT, on the other hand, is 100% reliable, and can be installed very quickly and easily, without disrupting the call handling equipment, he adds.
For more information contact Bennie Langenhoven, Tellumat, +27 (0) 21 710 2375, [email protected]
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