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DECT: the best Choice in Enterprise Mobility
7. March 2018 Published by Raphael Doerr
As one of the leading wireless digital voice technologies, DECT has established a strong base in the business market. Over the course of time, we moved from single cell to multicell, which enabled larger businesses to deploy the technology on a large scale, and smaller businesses to have a wider coverage. Next, we combined DECT with IP, which offered a wealth of possibilities to further improve efficiency and productivity through integration between the data network and telephony. DECT IP has been growing steadily and it seems this trend will continue to grow for a while.
Mobile and DECT technology
We can easily state now that every consumer has a mobile phone. And maybe has one in the drawer as a second device or backup. The success in the consumer market opened the doors for mobiles in the business market. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has become popular and mobile flat fee contracts are now valid for all European countries. Now an interesting question presents itself: does the DECT telephone offer competition to the mobile phone? The answer is rather simple. Outdoors or on the road, the mobile phone is the best device without a doubt. But when it comes to indoor mobility, the mobile phone still faces issues that DECT doesn’t.
What makes DECT special?
We can state that DECT keeps its strong position. Why is that? I can think of a few good reasons. First of all, DECT is extremely stable. The radio technology is digital, encrypted and has its own bandwidth in the frequency range of 1.8 – 1.9GHz. DECT transmission is incredibly powerful and covers 50 indoor – 300 meters in the ideal situation outside. With the right setup, you can make a call at every location in the building. This means even in the basement, where mobile phones can be challenged by bad signals due to a Faraday cage or thick walls, for example.
Some companies choose Voice-over-Wi-Fi, but quickly learn that designing and deploying such a network is challenging and the quality cannot reach the quality and security levels DECT can. This addresses the basic needs of the end users, who simply want to communicate both hassle-free and reliably. DECT is the only technology that guarantees indoor coverage and supports any conversation digitally.
DECT technology is more cost-effective than any other. The base stations and handsets are much more attractively priced than competing equipment, which makes DECT the best choice in any business case. Moreover, on average the lifecycle of a DECT device is much longer compared to mobile phones and replacement in case of lost or damaged devices is much cheaper. And following the latest trends, no monthly fee is charged other than the overall company contract for parallel calls.
Regardless the price, we must not forget that it’s all about the user in the end. Usability is the most important aspect for them. Consider our R650H-model, which offers 320 hours of standby time and 14 hours of talk-time. No cell phone is able to meet these metrics. This strong performance, together with its reliability, usability and scalability has been key to DECT’s success so far.
Serving different industries
So overall, DECT has a strong history and offers advantages in various ways. But what about its future? First of all, we expect to see an increase in specialized services for specific industries or business functions. Think of hospitality, heavy industry, health care or collaboration. A more specific example is the smart office and office automation. Wireless technologies are competing with each other. But which one is the preferred one? DECT with its ULE (Ultra Low Energy) is in the top of the best wireless technologies for short range communication, including data signaling, control and status information. Our Gigaset Elements portfolio is an example of the wireless success of DECT-ULE in this upcoming market segment. And do not forget, DECT is already one of the most secure radio technologies there is and development in this field is continuing, guarding strongly against eavesdropping and potential loss of intellectual property.
The future: adapt to needs
The future is unpredictable. What we do know is that people within all kinds of industries operating in different positions do have specific needs in communication and will accept nothing but the best. This translates itself into the need for feature-rich communication tools to support them in their daily activities. Some will need robust, ruggedized devices. Others will need a small handset which fits in a jeans pocket, or attaches easily on a belt with a belt-clip. And the always-on-the-move employee will profit from our Gigaset smartphones with fixed-mobile convergence capabilities and dual-sim.
DECT has proven to be a standard that has weathered many technological developments and stands strong as the best means for professional communication in the business setting. At Gigaset pro we are excited to be part of that history, which inspires us to offer premium, best in class quality at all times.
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