Telecom 99 coming soon...
DECT will feature as a small part of the the upcoming major telecomfest
in Geneva, Telecom 99
For details of exhibitors and all the events associated with this major occasion
check out the special Telecom 99
website. If you plan to exhibit DECT products, please let DECTweb know.
HomeRF announce preview of first SWAP Products
San Francisco, September 8, 1999 - The HomeRF (TM Working Group, a
leading consortium of companies promoting wireless home networking, today announced the
inaugural Wireless Home Networking Forum, which will take place on October 12, 1999 at the
Sheraton Grand, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The conference offers attendees a first
of its kind forum where they can hear about the latest developments in technology and see
the debut of several SWAP-enabled wireless product prototypes. SWAP - shared
wireless access protocol - is based upon DECT and IEEE802.11.
For full details see their press
release.
Xilinx and ISS announce deal on Joint Development of Coding Cores
Xilinx has announced a joint technology development and OEM
agreement with Integrated Silicon Systems, Ltd. (ISS) of Belfast, Northern Ireland,
for Xilinx to provide versions of the popular ISS Reed-Solomon cores.
The products will use Xilinx Smart-IP technology, which permits customers to set
their own core parameters.
For full details see their press
release.
Ericsson-Ascom Alliance
Ericsson Business Networks AB and Ascom Tateco AB have signed a
strategic co-operation agreement regarding supply, distribution and joint development of
business cordless communications products and services. Through this new alliance both
companies will be able to offer total solutions, a complete product range and full service
within the field of on-site business communications. The joint product and service range
will be marketed and distributed through both companies' worldwide market channels.
For full details see their press
release.
New
DECT Handset with Vibrator
What next - just what you need for those noisy
environments or whilst in meetings, the Kirk Telecom dect-z Vibra II handset fits the
bill. The handset looks identical to the earlier dect-z products from Kirk,
but the innards are all new, with new facilities. Promised for an August launch, the
latest launch date sounds to be October 1999, according to Kirk's website.
Also scheduled for an October/November launch is Kirk's dect-z 3040 handset, offering
additional features.
More detail on our Business
Systems Page.
DECT
in 3G
Whilst Wideband CDMA and UMTS have been getting
all the press in recent months, DECT has been making quiet progess too to secure its
future role in third generation mobile systems, 3G. Originally proposed in
1998 for a possible role in IMT, DECT survived the initial evaluation rounds.
At the Beijing TG8/1 meeting back 31st May to 11th June, DECT was specified as
one of 5 air interfaces to be part of the IMT2000
family. The details of the specifications of the RSPC (Radio Specification)
document for IMT2000 are being developed over these summer months, with finalisation
expected at the Helsinki meeting in November this year. The details of the
DECT part of the emerging RSPC specification may be found here on the ITU IMT2000
website.
Details of the working
arrangements for the development of the IMT specifications can be found on the ITU
website.
DECT
Repeaters get more User Friendly
DECT repeaters have taken a step forward in ease
of use with a new software release (v3.0) from RTX. The new software allows the
repeater to automatically assign itself to a given DECT GAP compatible basestation
placed nearby (within, say, 2 metres) - turning on the basestation for registration
and turning on the repeater then completes the process. The repeater can then
be turned off and deployed within the normal coverage range of the existing basestation.
Undoubtedly this new step in ease of use will accelerate the acceptance of
repeaters in DECT cordless installations, for both gap-filling and range extension.
Up to six repeaters can be assigned to each basestation.
More info from RTX - see our Repeaters
Page.
July 1999 News below:
New
Global Company for DECT Approvals
BABT and TUV announced the formation of a new
joint venture operation to be known as BABT Product Service. BABT Product Service is a new global telecoms and radio test, conformance,
certification and compliance management provider, established to help designers and
manufacturers better prepare to meet the increasing challenges of product design and
approval in these global markets.
BABT Product Service is a merger of the world-wide telecommunications businesses of
TÜV Product Service and BABT. This alliance combines the wealth of experience and
expertise of both parties bringing together the telecoms business of TÜV Product Service,
a well respected presence in all the major world markets offering testing solutions for
telecoms and radio compliance with BABT, the globally respected European telecoms and
radio approvals, and quality systems certifier. With offices worldwide and laboratory
locations in UK, North America, Germany and Asia Pacific, BABT Product Service has the
ability to provide local access to world markets.
DECTweb includes the full press
release.
Information on the approvals process for DECT products may be found on our Regulatory Issues Page.
Test Houses for DECT Products may
also be found on DECTweb
HomeRF by winter - how will it compete with DECT ?
The HomeRF Group announced steps, June 7, to speed
availability of SWAP-compliant products.
Several manufacturers have declared an
intention to launch products by winter this year. Proxim have announced that its
Symphony Cordless Networking Suite will become SWAP compliant and will be fully backward
compatible with currently shipping Symphony products.The HomeRF WG also
announced the release of SWAP 1.1, which incorporates several low-level changes to the
SWAP specification. Launched in January, the SWAP specification provides an open
platform that enables a broad range of interoperable consumer devices for wireless voice
and data communications in the home.
Proxim has announced that it will add SWAP 1.1 support into new
members of its Symphony product family. This will include a cordless USB adapter for
desktop computers, a cordless PC card for notebook computers, and a cordless miniature
design-in module for radio integration into products such as broadband Internet gateways.
These new SWAP compliant devices will ship with Harmony bridging software to enable
seamless interoperability with currently shipping Symphony and other OpenAir wireless LAN
standard-based enterprise wireless LAN devices.
Earlier this year, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and Proxim
announced a technology relationship to develop wireless home networking products also
based on the SWAP specification. Early June this year, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT)
and Proxim announced a partnership to produce integrated wireless networking products for
shared high-speed Internet access in the home or small office based on SWAP.
SWAP (=Shared Wireless Access Protocol) is
partially based upon DECT technology - version 1.1 of the SWAP specification was released
to coincide with the recent press release from the group.
DECTweb
includes the full
press release.
See also our July Feature on
HomeRF, contributed by Wayne Caswell of IBM Microelectronics, the HomeRF Marketing Chair,
in our News & Views Feature
Section.
Innovative DECT Receiver
DECTweb has been
advised of a new patent filing offering a low cost innovative DECT receiver, capable of
operating in time dispersive channels. "Time-dispersion
becomes a more and more important effect as the data rates increase. If equalizers are to
be avoided for cost reasons, time dispersion effects can limit the transmission quality.
The proposed receiver reduces bit errors due to time dispersion while requiring only a
simple limiter. Benefits include reduced sensitivity to time dispersion
errors, only one additional limiter required, can also be used in conjunction with
diversity". Potential Fields of Application include cordless telephones for
offices, airports, industrial environments, wireless local loop terminals, low-mobility
PCS systems. For more info, please e-mail us
at DECTweb.
Careers in the DECT Cordless Industry
We've just added a new page on DECTweb
for those of our visitors seeking employment or with specific vacancies, technical or
commercial. Please feel free to e-mail us if you fall into either of these
categories and we'll happily include your item on the new Jobs page.
GaAsTEK announce new RF components for DECT/WDCT...
Hot on the heels of a raft of new integrated
DECT/WDCT RF components, GaAsTEK has recently announced a range of some 8 new RF
switches and 4 attenuators. Details may be found under their section on our Semiconductors Page.
...and a Merger
July 15, DECT RF component supplier GaAsTEK announced the merging of its
operation and that of the ITT MicroElectronics Center
(MEC), both located in Roanoke, VA, USA.
"Over the past year our customer base, both commercial and
military, have increasingly asked for module level solutions," said Paul Gralnick,
President of ITT GaAsTEK. "By making MEC a part of ITT GaAsTEK, we are now
positioned to supply our customers with high volume, customer specific module
solutions." "Our merger with ITT GaAsTEK makes a lot of sense," added
Ed Donoho, Operations Manager of MEC, "we are a consistent, low cost, high quality,
fully automated module manufacturer ideal for a GaAs IC supplier like GaAsTEK."
Paul Gralnick noted that because MEC has been in the business of
producing and delivering military, commercial, and space qualified modules for several
years, "ITT GaAsTEK has a leg-up on competitors just now entering the module
business. We are solidly in the module design and manufacturing business for
internal and external customers, and where it makes sense, we will support module business
on a subcontract basis."
What will this merger mean for the DECT industry ?
Integrated miniature DECT modules 1 x 2 cms, perhaps, enabling a new range of
miniature products ?
We await future product releases from the company with interest...
Corporate Onephone Launched
According to the NewsEdge Corporation, Ericsson and BT's Corporate
Mobile Solutions division have just launched a variant of the BT Onephone service
aimed at business users. The service is entitled Corporate Onephone.
Supporting both DECT short range and GSM mobile, the service also supports a combined
voice-mail facility.
Earlier
news may be found in the DECTnews archive