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Handset convergence - DECT
Technology has already changed the way we use phones, with a land-line at home and a cell phone on the move. But the future holds a combination of both.
"You'd think this was enough, but no, modern technology pushes relentlessly forward," says Pat. Now there's a new type of telephone system called DECT: Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication. This system does away with conventional land lines, and uses radio waves to transmit data."
Pat talks to Myron Keller at Telkom about the DECT technology:
There's no digging up of roads to lay cables - in fact there are no cables - so those irritating copper wire thieves will have to focus elsewhere. And, because there aren't any cables, there's no corrosion, or problems with water seepage. An entire suburb can be easily covered, and larger areas are linked into existing exchanges. "Your phone can be installed and operational in a day or two," says Pat.
So for the business community, especially small businesses, there's the benefit of having all the facilities of land-line phones, without the delay in waiting for physical line cabling.
Handsets are now being designed to incorporate both GSM and DECT technologies into the same unit. Ericsson, Nokia and others have already developed working prototypes, and they are expected to be in service early 1999. These handsets will recognise both GSM and DECT. If you are in the office, you will be connected to the normal PABX system via the DECT technology. Once you leave the DECT coverage area in the office, the handset automatically switches over to GSM, and your calls are re-routed to your GSM cell-number. "Which means that my office can be just about anywhere," says a smiling Pat, looking around at his new office environment - the woods!
CONTACTS:
Bruce Nolte |
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Pat Pillai, "In Touch" presenter, investigates. Some of us can still remember the old manual telephone exchanges, "but gone are the days when you had to hang on and on whilst the exchange operator shoved plugs around a board and continually chirped 'call waiting', whilst the farm Tannies had a 'skinner' session", says Pat. "Nowadays we have digital technology and we can fax, speak and even connect the Internet through our standard phone line at home."
When you're out of the home or office you have your cell phone to keep in touch, and receive faxes, short messages or e-mail, and when you're climbing Everest, you even have a satellite phone to stay in touch, fax, send short messages or E-mail.
So apart from being a system that's cheap, effective and easy to install, it will also do away with some of the more cumbersome and expensive aspects of telephone installation as we know it.
Pat talks to Bruce Nolte at Ericsson SA about the facilities their DECT phone offers. "The Freeset is a corporate DECT system. It will interface completely with your existing PABX system. It is basically just an extension of your PABX system, so it will offer you all theat functionality, but via a cordless handset," says Bruce.
"But the joy is; a client calling into a worker can be transferred automatically to that worker no matter where the person is, in the car, at home or even in the forest!", says Pat.