Tomorrow, American Telecom Services, Inc. (ATS) will announce the release of its first DECT 6.0 cordless multi-handset Internet phone. The master units (E6501) are expected to retail at a sub $50 mark (likely $49.99) and the extensions (E6502) will each retail for sub $30 (likely $29.99).The E6501 includes ATS’ patent-pending Digital Clear functionality and is expandable to up to five total handsets. ATS claims this is the first cordless phone to use DECT technology that integrates a router and a SIP VoIP platform in the charging base of the master cordless phone unit. Uniden makes a cordless phone system, which I recently reviewed - the UIP1869V, that supports SIP, but it's not DECT and its locked to Vonage, so the ATS phone system is the first cordless phone system (DECT or otherwise) that is an open SIP system to use with any VoIP provider that provides you with SIP credentials. Nice thing about that is if you change VoIP providers you aren't left with a "bricked" phone system.
The ATS E6501 and E6502 will be sold by American Telecom under the ATS brand bundled with service through major retailers (online and offline) in the U.S. They are not announcing which service providers and/or retailers will be carrying it at this time, however if you look closely in the photo you can see SunRocket displayed, a well-known VoIP service provider. The phones will also be available wholesale to service providers who wish to distribute them through their own channels.
Basic specs are as follows:
- DECT 6.0 communication with a range of more than 650 feet
- Expandable design up to 5 total handsets
- Integrated adapter and router
- SIP compliant VoIP platform
- LCD display
- Page/locator button on base
- Intercom between handsets
- Speakerphone on all handsets
- Headset jack on all handsets
- 60 number phone book
- Auto answer
- 10 hours of talk time
- 10 selectable ring tones
- Hearing aid compatible
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the range is bit on lower side, rest seems good
http://www.voip-traffic.com/articles/voip-codec.html
This is pretty cool...
I was at the Ebay DevCon last weekend and there was a big push for the newly acquired Skype. They claim that the adoption lately has been at a rate of 2 people per second! They have a Skype phone available now, but when you look into it, it has to be physically pluged into the PC. They person I talked to in the "vendor" area for Skype said that they will soon have a cordless version as well.
There have been other VoIP end systems with DECT. Some that come to my mind are Inventel and Linksys.
>>There have been other VoIP end systems with DECT. Some that come to my mind are Inventel and Linksys.
I had an exclusive review on the Linksys CIT200 DECT phone. Although it is a multi-handset DECT phone, it only works with Skype - it's not a SIP-based VoIP platform that'll work with any SIP provider. So I wouldn't put this product in the same league as the ATS DECT phone system.
As for Inventel, you are correct, they do have a SIP-based device with DECT built-in and a firewall. I vaguely recalled hearing about another DECT phone system with SIP + built-in firewall functionality, which is why I put a disclaimer in what I wrote, i.e.:
"ATS claims this is the first cordless phone to use DECT technology that integrates a router and a SIP VoIP platform in the charging base of the master cordless phone unit."
I knew somebody would post a comment if indeed there was another similar product. Thanks Aswath!
BTW, I searched Google News for "inventel" and no search results came back for this company. No wonder most people haven't heard of them. When researching this story, I googled (news) "voip dect" and didn't see any news stories of similar products in any press announcements. That'll teach me to rely on Google News when I remembered hearing about Inventel! Maybe I'll run it by you, Aswath, next time...