DECTnews 3Q00

Ericsson announces new DECT handsets
Ericsson have announced new rugged DECT handsets as part of an enhancement to their BusinessPhone 250 and BusinessPhone 50 digital office telephone systems, along with additions of an integrated Internet Protocol (IP) gateway and a new web-browser-based management tool. The new rugged cordless phones support built-in text messaging and are well suited to construction sites, in warehouses or in other tough environments.

In a separate release, Ericsson have also announced their new high end DECT phone, the DT270. One of the new features of the DT570 is text messaging which enables users to receive important messages from the intranet/Internet, even when they are on the phone or in a meeting.

DECTweb now hosting the DECT Forum's Website
The DECT Forum – the alliance of DECT manufacturers, suppliers, and operators – and DECTweb – the global on-line DECT community – have announced close co-operation in their presence on the World Wide Web, reflecting the increasing global success of DECT and a common desire to provide a comprehensive resource for information for the industry, accessible around the world.

As of September 2000 the DECT Forum website will be hosted as part of DECTweb , providing benefits to members of both organisations, in terms of access to a greater level of information resources, as well as increased opportunities for personal interaction.

Visit the DECT Forum subsite now available here on DECTweb to discover the wealth of additional information now available to our members

Major Australian Store Chain Adopts DECT
The major Australian retailing company Target has selected a DECT handset solution from Kirk for rollout at significant number of their stores across the country. Target joins a growing list of Australian organisations that have installed DECT systems such as Amcor, Pilkington Glass, Officeworks, Coles Supermarkets, K-Mart, Bunnings, Mayne Logistics, Health Care of Australia hospitals, Star Track Express distribution centres, Master Foods, Carlton and United Breweries, Spicers Paper, Lockwood Locks and Woolworths distribution.

Pace adopt DECT for Wireless Home Gateway
At IBC, the annual broadcasting industry event in Amsterdam at the start of September Pace became the first broadcast industry player to launch a DECT-based home gateway product using DECT technology.

Pace's choice of DECT technology for wireless connectivity within the networked home will ensure accessibility for the mass market. This proven technology is well-established, robust and cost-effective. It is also easy to install, avoiding the expense and inconvenience of extensively re-wiring consumer's homes.

New Research on DECT Acceptance in Hospitals
Philips have recently published results from research into the acceptance and benefits of DECT cordless phones in the hospital environment. The research is based upon usage of DECT phones by key staff since January 1998 at the Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline, Scotland, where some 220 cordless phones are now in use. Research results indicated that 98% of staff questioned thought the phones had saved them time, with one respondent estimating this to be as much as one hour a day ! 96% of respondents thought that the phones had contributed to an improvement in patient care.

DECTweb hopes to obtain further information for inclusion at a later date on our Feature Pages

Information on the use of DECT in hospitals, including safety studies, may be found on our Applications Page

MZA Update on the European Cordless Market
The UK market research consultancy MZA has recently provided DECTweb with updated information on the Western European cordless market, extracted from its annual study for 2000, completed in July and recently published. According to their figures, a total of 22.1 million personal cordless telephones were sold in Western Europe during 1999. The proportion of DECT sales increased to a total figure of 12.5 million, or 57% of the total market. This compares to 9.3 million sales the previous year. The total domestic cordless telephone market is expected to increase to 36 million units by 2005, with DECT accounting for 94% of total sales. In terms of manufacturers, Siemens continues to be the most notable player, followed by Philips and Ascom.

TEMIC rebrands as Atmel Wirelss & Microcontrollers
The SiGe DECT chip supplier TEMIC Semiconductors has recently announced a rebranding as it has become part of the Atmel group, as of August this year. Atmel Wireless & Microcontrollers, formerly TEMIC Semiconductors, regroups, as in the past, all the activities of the sites of Heilbronn, Germany (wireless communications, broadcast media, automotive & wireless control) and Nantes, France (microcontrollers, FPGA conversion, ASICs & Aerospace), the offshore operations in the Philippines as well as its worldwide sales organization. Atmel Wireless & Microcontrollers intends to pursue and reinforce its position in the markets where its competences are recognized, namely Communications, Automotive, Industrial, Data-processing, and Aerospace & Defense.

Shortage of DECT Components hits the Bottom Line
The ongoing shortage of DECT components has been blamed in part at least for the poor performance of the Swedish based telecommunications company Doro, alongside the strong dollar. The shortage of components has been caused by a global lack of manufacturing capacity, combined with the continuing growth in demand for mobile phones, with manufacturers focussing on the higher value markets. Several other DECT manufacturers have been similarly hit.

FCC Approve Rule Change to allow More Bandwidth
The FCC has decided to remove a key restriction on frequency hopping radio technology in the USA, thus allowing much higher data throughput. The ruling clears the way for the HomeRF Working Group's Shared Wireless Access Protocol (SWAP) to advance to 10 Mbps, offering a five-fold increase in transmission speed. Siemens has hailed this step, opening up as it does a range of new applications, and allowing new developments of their cordless phone systems in the US market.

It will be interesting also to see the effect this rule change has on the relative positions of HomeRF and Bluetooth in North America, given their potential for mutual interference.

Philips Claims new DECT RF Efficiencies
Philips has claimed achievement of near GaAs performance from silicon using Agilent's new RF design tools. Their new all-silicon 500 mW DECT power amplifier is said to achieve typical power-added efficiencies of 50% under real DECT pulsed power conditions.

DECT at the Olympics
The flexibity of DECT technology has been a factor in the choice of the Definity system for the next 5 Olympics. The Sydney Olympics will be using DECT technology, as will the ones in Athens and Turin. The Definity system is provided by Avaya, the Enterprise Business Unit of Lucent Technologies, which will be spun off later this year.

Lucent sells DECT facility in France
Lucent has announced the sale to Viasystems Inc its manufacturing facility at Rouen in France, where the SWING/DECT wireless local loop products are made. The future of the products themselves has been safeguarded with a 30 month supply contract set in place. Viasystems is already a supplier to Lucent and thus the sale reflects simply a shift in the value chain.

Short Messages with DECT
Given the popularity and massive growth in the GSM short message service (SMS), perhaps it was only a matter of time before someone woke up to the idea of incorporating an SMS capability into a DECT telephone.

LIFE Telecom have just broken the news to DECTweb that they are developing a DECT telephone incorporating an SMS function for several telecom operators in Europe. The idea is that the telco will have their own SMS platform which will support sending and receiving SMS messages between the DECT phone and any GSM phone, extending the reach of the GSM SMS functionality into the domestic environment.

RTX Announce OEM ISDN DECT Offering
Someone has been busy this summer with new product development ! RTX telecom have just announced their OEM ISDN DECT offering, claiming as little as 6 months time to market for a new product. Their solution is based on a customer DECT set where the basestation is changed into an ISDN solution. The customer DECT handset is reused without modifications and the RTX OEM-ISDN Basestation is reworked so it matches the customer's own mechanics and user interface. As a Turn-Key development company RTX Telecom is in charge of Type Approvals, Software/Hardware tests and full production setup, as well as supplying the product in either bulk package or in a customer defined product package. This makes the solution very easy for any DECT customer that needs to enhance their DECT portfolio with ISDN. For customers needing DECT+ISDN+DATA, RTX Telecom also offer turn-key solutions in this area.

DECT2001 Dates Announced (and Call for Papers)
IBC have just announced details of the DECT Forum’s official annual conference for 2001. It will, once again, be taking place in Barcelona in January, with the focus this year on DECT data standards, architecture and applications (such as wireless office and home networking), DECT-GSM integration and DECT in the Wireless Local Loop. Invitations are currently open for speakers who wish to present at this event to submit proposals for potential topics. The submission should consist of a title and a 100 word synopsis and sent via email to nicholas.smith@informa.com

New DECT PABX and WLL products
Kylink from Taiwan is the latest new entrant to launch DECT wireless locoal loop and PABX equipment, with its KY-DWLL and KY-1000AS products.

Don't Drop your Phone... !
New straps from Krusell could be just what you need if you need a new DECT phone 'cos you dropped the last one, or if you're a skier or gardener !

Extended Test Capabilities
New software add-ons to the RP'SIM-dect DECT MONITOR and SIMULATOR products from Systems G have been announced which enable their existing DEMON DECT Monitoring equipment to offer a range of new capabilities, including testing of DPRS products, audio capture and interference testing.

More Moves in Australia... promise to create a consumer market
On July 1, 2001 a class license came into effect in Australia for cordless telephones services and the microwave links that share the DECT spectrum lost their interference protection. The Australian Communication Authority (ACA) recently introduced a Cordless Telephone Service (CTS) network license option which could allow distributors to authorize customer sites to operate equipment as a third party to a CTS network license after appropriate coordination, frequency assignment and documentation.

Ericsson Australia has taken an Australia-wide CTS network license and since developed a unique Consumer Licensing Solution enabling Cordless Phone 200 series purchasers to register, coordinate and modify their equipment to obtain third party authorization in accordance with the CTS license requirements.

Moves in Australia
Australian company Wavelink are on the move. After a successful year growing the DECT market down under they are relocating to new offices in Sydney. But keeping the same phone, fax etc details. They're celebrating with a special offer - just the thing if you live in this region - every Kirk dect-Z 1500 PABX system purchased and installed till end October will be supplied with 2 free Kirk Z-3040 handsets, featuring in-built vibration ringer and headset jack.

Italian DECT Developments
LIFE Telecom & Multimedia Tech Ltd continue their advance into the DECT arena with two new phones to be launched across Europe shortly and some interesting Far East deals. Is it the Italian style that wins the deals or is it the engineering ?

In Italy, Swiss, France, Belgium, Greece and Spain the new LIFE LT401will be marketed as the HiTel MOAI 211 Cordless DECT product, whilst in other countries it will be sold under OEM brand names. The LT401 is already on sale in Italy, with some 150k production anticipated this year and a lot more in 2001.

A further new model, the LT402 will be launched later this year, around November/December time, a low cost product aimed at competing against CT0 products.

Recent overseas deals have included ones with China, Korea and Australia. LIFE will be supplying a major Chinese manufacturer with substantial quantities of 1.9 GHz RF modules for their own DECT product, delivering around now. A big Korean company will be using LIFE product for the complete solution for a major European order. And a well know Australian operator will be sourcing DECT phones from LIFE at the end of this year.

And more from Italy...
In response to a recent query about Cordless Telephone Adaptors, we've received information about URMET's DECT Wireless Local Loop extension product, part of which can be used as a CTA. Available in both European and Latin American versions this looks an interesting product.

Airway in Russia
In a further development, Home Wireless Networks have announced a distribution deal for their DECT-based Airway product in Russia, with a company called Systemhouse.

DECT truly has become globally accepted and new developments and initiatives continue to come from across the nations. In Russia GOODWIN have recently announced new products and plans, including:

* Mass production of cordless terminal adapters - using DECT to simply provide a wireless phone socket, for existing phones, faxes, etc
* Promotion of its mini-WLL system - this system is economically viable for providing telephony for small subscriber groups (up to 192 subscribers) such as cottage settlements or newly built city districts.

These new initiatives follow GOODWIN's success in securing approval of their DECT wireless local loop system for commercial operation by the MGTS commission in the Kurkino district near Moscow. The company has also been invited by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Nepal to take part in the tender for constructing a national wireless local loop system to access the PSTN.

New DECT stack lowers the cost again !
It seems like DECT phone prices are still continuing to drop at an amazing rate - but the cost reductions are not being driven only from the Far East. The French company INVENTEL has just announced a new low cost solution for simple DECT phones. It plans to release a new DECT stack which will enable a very low cost BOM for a DECT phone. The stack is working with the ABC-Pro Low Cost baseband processor and the latest 2-chip RF module.

This software is a solution for a DECT phone with simple function, but still maintaining the DECT quality of link both in terms of range and sound quality. INVENTEL claim this solution will enable at least US4$ cost saving on the total BOM. INVENTEL is leveraging its leading position in the DECT development world in order to address a tremendous market waiting for low cost DECT phones. The company is also apparently developing low cost versions of its existing phone ranges which have been already developed for its different customers. INVENTEL's approach appears to be aiming to compete head on on price with the existing CT0 market.

Well those folk lucky enough to have invested in RTX at their IPO a couple of months ago appear to have nearly doubled their money. Shortly after trading began the price had leapt to 185DKK, but during July they hit a high of 340DKK, and were still up at 327DKK on 18th August.

DECT WLL gains more ground in Brazil
Lucent are supplying the Brazilian telco Telemar with their SWING/DECT WLL technology to bring telephony to rural villages which previously had no telephone access.

BT Airway - DECT-based home networking - Product Launched
BT have announced the launch of their Airway home networking product, developed for them by Home Wireless Networks. The device comprises an "Intelligent Gateway" connected to the incoming telephone line(s) and DECT-based wireless links to phones and PCs. With a strater pack priced at £399 ex VAT, this is a very interesting product, aimed at the SOHO and small business market.

Download your 32-channel ADPCM Core over the Internet !
Xilinx have just launched a new 32-channel ADPCM Core, suitable for use with DECT multichannel PABX / WLL products. The core is one of the first products to result from a strategic partnership between Xilinx and IP developer Integrated Silicon Systems Ltd. (ISS). A standard licensing deal means that the Core can be purchased online and downloaded over the Internet.

Networking with DECT
Check out the new July Feature article on the wireless networking capabilities of DECT using the new data standards. This special feature has been kindly contributed by Stoyan Baev. Stoyan is sub-project Chairman of ETSI's EP DECT-T team and current editor of the DPRS second edition standard, and has been a major contributor to the distributed communication concepts of DECT. You can find his feature at http://www.dectweb.com/News&Views/Features/FeatureIndex.htm