DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) is an ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) standard for digital portable phones.
A DECT handset looks like a mobile phone (a cell phone to my american readers) but instead of being connected (via the magic of radiowaves) to a remote base station and remote network it is instead connected to a local base station and network (your home phone line or PBX)
In a simple domestic context the DECT handset act as a replacement for a standard telephone, allowing the householder to make and receive call throughout the house, and possibly (depending on range) garden.
But in a business context the DECT handset can be put to a much more interesting use. Almost every business has a PBX with internal phones. If a DECT is allocated an internal socket and number and socket an employee can leave his desk.
I recently installed a DECT base system in my friends hardware store. The system comprises 1 no. station, 3 no. repeaters, 2 no. handsets.
Unfortunately while the hadsets are digital they seem to be modelled on GSM castoffs from 1998. They are huge! The common Siemens Gigaset (cobranded Eircom or BT depending on your territory) had every feature I needed, the key one being non-proprietry batteries and GAP compatibility for the repeaters. However it was just too big, and lets be frank when it comes to a portable device a key factor is size!
After much research I settled on the BT Glide, which is bluetooth compatible. It is still quite large but the form-factor is a glide so it can be left close and makes quite a small monoblock.
Unfortunately it was quite expensive so I didn’t get as many as I wanted, but it will be interesting to hear how they perform.
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