I saw the Linksys CIT200 Cordless Internet Telephony Kit on Tom's Networking site, which is an interesting cordless phone solution designed to be used with Skype. As seen in the photo, the Linksys box has a USB cable attached - no doubt to power the wireless signal and to communicate with the CIT200 handset.

Unfortunately, Tom's Networking information which he pulled from the FCC's site indicates that it uses 1.9Ghz, therefore it's not WiFi. According to Tom, "Unlike the Dualphone, however, the CIT200 appears to be Skype only".

Damn, that's too bad. I wonder why they didn't add SIP support? I find this a little bit hard to believe that this device only supports Skype. Most USB devices can act as an external speaker & microphone replacement if they support the USB audio classes. So why couldn't the handset work with other softphones such as Xten, SJPhone, etc? Sure, you may not be able to answer an incoming call via the handset itself since the CIT200 may not be integrated with other softphones, but you should be able to use your mouse to accept an incoming call and hear the audio on the handset (plus be able to speak into the microphone). Let me contact my sources at Linksys and find out more. I'll update this post with what I find. On a related note, I'm actually in the process of reviewing another wireless USB device from Phone Ranger that works with Skype. Been meaning to finish the post for like a month!

In any event, according to Tom's Networking, "The CIT200 will be OEM'd from Ascalade Technologies, a Richmond, Canada-based design house specializing in DECT, WDCT, and VoIP technology".

Check out the photo below. Pretty cool to see Linksys with the words "VoIP" and Skype written on it. This is more of a "consumer VoIP" play than a "business VoIP play". I still haven't given up on my prediction that Linksys will offer a SMB IP-PBX by year's end!