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Policy on re-use or
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news
DECTnews
Archive -
1Q2001
1Q2001
February
2001 News below:
New DECT Opportunities in India
DECTweb
has been approached by an established (7 years) internet/ telecom service
provider in a major industrial and IT active Indian state. The company has
secured a wireless license for 5 major cities in the state
with approx. population of 14 million and has frequency clearance for 1880-1900
DECT and is seeking partners who may wish to work on a shared / joint venture
basis. Should your company be interested, please submit suitable
indication of interest to
admin@dectweb.com
DECTweb
has been approached by an established (7 years) internet/ telecom service
provider in a major industrial and IT active Indian state. The company has
secured a wireless license for 5 major cities in the state
with approx. population of 14 million and has frequency clearance for 1880-1900
DECT and is seeking partners who may wish to work on a shared / joint venture
basis. Should your company be interested, please submit suitable
indication of interest to admin@dectweb.com
for forwarding to the company concerned. Thank you.
H&W launch DECT Modules for the USA
The
German company Hoeft & Wessel have announced a new variant on their range of
DECT modules to allow DECT functionality to be brought to the North American
market. For some time now H&W have produced a range of DECT
module products targeted at enabling flexible wireless data
applications using TCP/IP in factories, warehouses, businesses etc,
including wireless IP functionality.
In response to the changes to the FCC rules last
year, H&W have now introduced a new ISM
band variant, with identical interfacing, so that these wireless TCP/IP systems
can now be deployed in North America and other places where the original
DECT systems are not yet licensed for use.
DECTchat -
DECTchat -
the DECTweb
Chatroom
Following
the live chat session with the DECT experts from
ETSI on 26th January, on Direct Mode DECT, it has been decided to schedule
regular two-weekly Chatroom sessions for members of
DECTweb.
These will be held on Fridays at 9.00 GMT, with the first scheduled for FRIDAY
9th FEBRUARY. We hope to continue to host industry guests,
perhaps on a bi-monthly basis, and to focus discussion on current DECT-related
industry issues, as well as interviews with industry figures from some of the
leading manufacturers. (If you wish to suggest an interviewee from your
company please e-mail us at
.
These will be held on Fridays at 9.00 GMT, with the first scheduled for FRIDAY
9th FEBRUARY. We hope to continue to host industry guests,
perhaps on a bi-monthly basis, and to focus discussion on current DECT-related
industry issues, as well as interviews with industry figures from some of the
leading manufacturers. (If you wish to suggest an interviewee from your
company please e-mail us at
admin@dectweb.com).
admin@dectweb.com
January
2001 News below:
Philips integrated Cordless, Paging and Personal Security Solution
Details
of the Philips DECT6000 product range, announced last autumn, are now available on DECTweb. This product range, incorporating the 'Fusion' handset, allow
a range of innovative services to be offered into professional and service
environments, such as hospital, fire, and other applications.
See the Press
Release
Pace Home Gateway Product - Update
At
DECT 2001 Pace demonstrated a fully operational GateWay Expander and pcConnect
with zero blind slot RF running a 11 slot symmetrical operation, achieving
250Kbps over the air interface between a Web server attached to the Gateway
expander and a web browser on a laptop attached to pcConnect. The demo was
operational at all times during the two day event without crashing and on a
number of occasions the laptop and pcConnect was carried over from RTX stand to
Nat-Semi stand to illustrate mobility during browsing. This technology has
now been successfully demonstrated at several international events over the past
few months.
European Market Shares
Figures
released by Siemens in Barcelona provide an interesting perspective on shares
for the European DECT telephone retail market, with figures claimed for
2000 of Siemens at no 1 with 27% and Philips at no 2 with 14%, significant
change over the past two years, at which time the Siemens figures showed them
equal, both with 20% share. The figures showed the other players monitored
- Alcatel, Panasonic and Samsung as all having 5% or less share in 2000.
Other figures from the same talk showed forecasts
for the coming year of a 26% growth in DECT shipments (against an overall
cordless market shipments growth of 8%,and a drop in analogue shipments of 6%)
and 19% growth in shipment value (against an overall cordless market value
growth of 7%, and a decline in analogue value of 9%).
DECT SIMcard Update
DECT
2001 in Barcelona also saw an update on the Siemens "DECT SIMcard",
seen last year at CeBIT 2000. At that event the device was purely a low
power version, rather like the low power Bluetooth solution. Barcelona
however Siemens showed its revamped version complete with full 250mW PA on board.
The size of the DECT SIMcard is just 24mm*15mm*3mm, providing an impressive demonstration of their
technology capability.
Click here for a
preview...and here
Direct Mode Products to Hit the Streets
Siemens
announced in Barcelona that its new phones scheduled for the Spring will include
Direct Mode operation - the ability for one phone to talk directly with another,
without the need for a basestation. Also known as 'walkie-talkie' mode,
the facility is very useful for in-town shopping or when on holiday - bear in
mind that a GSM to GSM call when in Barcelona is routed via Munich if you live
in Germany, and costs a lot of money. Another company has also
announced that it is developing 2.4 GHz DECT phones with this capability for the
US market.
New product opportunities - Direct Mode arguably
opens up a whole new range of low cost children's products based around DECT -
ones that can warn when a young child wanders off whilst out in town shopping,
for example, or mobile phone toys that allow the kids to talk to each other
without call charges, for older ones. Maybe next year it'll be DECT relay
stations built into the phones...to allow yet more !
DECTweb will
be hosting a Chatroom session on the Direct Mode
technology with the technical experts from ETSI on Friday 26th January
9.00 GMT
DECT Forum announce New Quality Mark for Data Products
At
the DECT 2001 event in Barcelona last week the
DECT Forum took the opportunity to announce a major new initiative to accelerate
the take up of DECT data products. Reflecting recent changes
in the European Union regulatory regime - the move away from Type Approval and
the implementation of the RTTE Directive - the Forum is introducing a
scheme of voluntary DPRS Conformance Testing based around so-called "Golden
Devices". Approved products will receive a Quality Mark,
certifying conformance and interoperability. Watch for more details
in the coming days here on DECTweb
See the latest DECT
Forum Presentation from the DECT 2001 conference, which described this
scheme (and other issues)
ETSI Standards Update
Guenther
Kleindl, Chairman of the ETSI DECT project, presented a valuable update of the
ETSI standards activity at this years DECT 2001 conference in Barcelona.
Perhaps the high points of particular note were:
* DECT in the ISM Band - the FCC rule change
reported on DECTweb last year has resulted in the possibility to deploy DECT
phones with minimal changes in the 2.4 GHz ISM band in the USA. Maximum
power is limited to 100 mW, giving a slight reduction in range, but with the
potential for DPRS as well as voice the impact of this is
significant. (HomeRF guys at the conference stressed their DECT
heritage and the fact that they really wanted to avoid competing with DECT in
North America - it'll be interesting to see how this one plays out)
* Wireless LAN extensions using DECT was another
area where ETSI standards have moved forward in the past year, woith V.24 and
Ethernet ASAPs now available, allowing the DECT fixed part to act as a router.
* DECT-UMTS interworking is another area under
active work.
More details on all of these will appear in the
coming days in the Standards
Section of DECTweb
Demos at DECT 2001
The
DECT 2001 conference in Barcelona drew its usual clutch of new product
demonstrations again this year. Amongst these were:
* Wireless boy racers - The opportunity to try a racing car game,
competing against another conference delegate at the other end of the hall,
connected over DPRS. One end of the link was on the RTX Telecom
stand, with the other on National Semiconductors. "The implementation
cost at present is lower with DECT than with Bluetooth" - quote from the
National Semiconductors man.
* Wireless webpads were in abundance, with
examples from National Semiconductor, Hoeft & Wessel and
Siemens. The Siemens product was launched in November and will be in
the shops from the Spring, selling at DM2290 - appealing to a niche market at
this price !
* New DECT chips - Ericsson Microelectronics were
exhibiting their new range of DECT ICs, with a neat little demo board built into
a CD-player, sending the music to a telephone handset. OK, so the
acoustics of the handset left a lot to be desired, but it proved the
functionality of their ICs !
* Wireless data modems on show included the
RS232-interface M101 from Siemens , available for a couple of years already, as
well as the newer USB-interface M105.
* The PACE set-top box, launched at the
International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam last September, was on show
on the RTX Telecom stand, along with PACE's Home Gateway Expander product - see above. A description of the product philosophy was included in a
talk at the conference given by RTX.
* Other demos included voice recognition software
on the National Semiconductor stand, a cordless headset DECT phone from Binatone,
as well as the usual collection of new DECT handsets, including ones from Kirk
and Ascom. National Semiconductor took the opportunity to host other
companies on their stand who were using their chipsets - including some new
faces in the form of IAR and Bithium - we'll hear more of these guys in days
ahead. Other exhibitors included Fraunhofer, ETS and possibly one or two
others that we missed !
New Market Figures Released
The
DECT Forum have just released latest data on sales figures for the year 2000,
indicating that total DECT sales to date have now topped 70 million.
To DECTweb,
the most fascinating thing about these latest figures is the fact that the
actual sales in 1999 and 2000 have been just a few percent below those forecast
by the DECT Forum two years ago at the annual DECT conference - indeed, if the industry
chip shortages of last year had not occurred, sales would have easily
exceeded the original forecasts. The DECT Forum's projections for
the future confirm the view that there is a great deal of potential in DECT
still for several years to come !
See Press
Release - along with DECT Forum's plans to share more information at the DECT
2001 event
See the figures and forecasts graphically on the Market
Statistics Page, together with our own commentary on the figures
Kirk Handset wins Prestigious Design Award
The
KIRK Z-3040 DECT handset has received the iF Product Design Award 2001.
Industrie Forum Design Hannover, is internationally renowned as one of the
leading design institutions in the field of contemporary industrial design.
Based at the world's largest exhibition site in Hannover, where it is closely
associated with the two biggest events in the international exhibition calendar,
CeBIT Hannover and the HANNOVER FAIR, iF is dedicated to the task of promoting
excellence in industrial design and making industrial management more aware of
the importance of design as a contributory factor in the commercial success of a
product.
See Press
Release
Goodwin target Russian Last Mile
Goodwin
Europe, well known for its own residential and business DECT products have
announced plans to supply their own developed and manufactured wireless local
loop products for the very substantial Russian last mile market.
Until now Goodwin have supplied imported DECT WLL products from Siemens, Urmet
etc, but plan from April 2001 to introduce their own products too this
market. They claim that local design will result in enhanced compatibility
with local requirements.
Whilst this potentially enables Goodwin to cream
more profit from the Russian WLL market it presumably also opens the space for
other importers and distributors to compete with them....
See Press
Release
 Earlier news may be found in
the DECTnews archive
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