By Dan Baldwin, Editor
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If your business empire includes locations that can operate with four total voice phone lines or less (this describes almost every small, customer-facing retail business on the planet) then there are new wireless business phone systems available that you should look at if you're in the market for a new phone system.
The best thing about these new business wireless phone systems is they operate just like regular phone systems with incoming phone lines in hunt or roll-over, have intercom, auto-attendant and voicemail but largely need almost no wiring. Because labor to install phone wiring can be very expensive, wireless business phone systems can save business owners a great deal of money.
Removing Voice From Your Data Network Solves Expensive Problems
A decade ago every business had two separate wired communications networks in their office that they had to pay to maintain; a phone wire network for voice communications and a data wire network for computer communications. Then someone (I can't remember who exactly) had the great idea of eliminating the cost of the phone wire network by connecting their office phone system over the data network.
That was a good idea in theory but it really didn't save small businesses much money and actually created expensive problems. The biggest problem created was poor voice phone call quality for small businesses that could not afford QoS ("quality of service") upgrades to their data networks to ensure that phone calls always got priority of data transmissions.
New DECT "Static Free" Wireless Technology Reinvents Cordless Business Phones
Most everyone that still has a landline in their home accesses that landline dial-tone with a cordless phone and understands the shortcomings that older cordless phone technology can bring to a phone call. Static, disconnects, interference with WiFi devices and "dead-zones" are just a few of the problems associated with the older 2.4 gHz, 900mHz and 5.8gHz.
Business phone system manufacturers seem to have selected DECT over other wireless spectrum technologies as evidenced by the AT&T SynJ® line built for small businesses and PolyCom's KIRK Wireless Solutions build for any sized business.
The DECT technology wins over older technologies due to increased range, call clarity and extended range when using DECT repeaters.
How Will Your Business Incorporate DECT Wireless Phones?
The technology is built to be a modularized solution that augments your existing PBX phone system or it can entirely replace it. If you have an existing business phone system that you'd like to get a couple more years out of contact your equipment provider to see what cordless phone option they have to offer.
Just like the way your cordless phones work at home, the dial-tone that goes into the phone is different then the cordless technology that sends the dial tone to the cordless stations or handsets. The DECT cordless technology works whether your dialtone is provided via an old-fashioned analogue POTS phone line or a new digital VoIP line.
Your office technology solution provider will be able to show you ways to migrate into the solution which will preserve your existing phone system and/or the benefits of simply dumping the phone system you have and getting a new one based on the DECT technology.
Wireless Business Phone Systems to Consider
AT&T SynJ® SB67138 This is a 4-line phone station that you can plug 4 POTS lines into as your "base station". Once you have this 4-line base station setup everything you expand off it like 4-line cordless handsets, 4-line corded phone stations or range extending repeaters requires no wired connections. You can have a total of eleven 4-line phones operating in your business where only one of the phones is physically wired to the dial tone. Click here to view a 4-minute YouTube video review of this solution. (If you like the whole cordless idea but you need a larger phone system, check out the AT&T Synapse® Business Phone System.)
Panasonic KX-TG4500B If you search the Internet for comparisons like this one between this Panasonic wireless solution and the AT&T SynJ solution, you'll see that the AT&T solution generally gets the nod. Many people just love Panasonic phones though and if that group includes you then you'll want to compare this solution to AT&T's SynJ. From all the Internet reviews I've seen, the ones for this Panasonic solution are a lot less glowing than the reviews for the AT&T solution. (It should be noted that this Panasonic solution uses the 5.8 gHz solution compared to the SinJ's use of the 1.9 gHz/DECT 6.0 solution.)
Engenius DuraPhon Pro As you can quickly see, this EnGenius is more walkie-talkie than normal cordless phone like the AT&T and Panasonic, but because it accommodates four phone-lines it wants a place in our list of wireless solutions to consider. Another big difference is all the gear is about double what you'll pay with the AT&T and Panasonic systems. But if you need a system that works on each floor of a 12-story building, this may be your system. It should also be noted that this system uses the older 900 mHz wireless spectrum. Click here to read up on the pros and cons of the different wireless spectrums.
Polycom KIRK Wireless Solutions If you're wanting to integrate a cordless phone solution into a mid-sized or enterprise business then Polycom's KIRK Wireless Solution must be considered. It operates in phone environment that includes PRI/T-1, SIP trunks and analogue lines.
How Do You Decide What's Right for Your Business? Call Us of Course!
While the new DECT 6.0 wireless phone technology can certainly reduce your phone wiring headaches, the plethora of choices from competing wireless technology vendors does not make one solution completely obvious over another. There may be legitimate reasons why your company may want to choose 900 mHz, 2.4 gHz or 5.8 gHz as your wireless voice spectrum of choice over DECT 6.0's 1,9 gHz.
The right way to choose is to involve an independent telecom consultant like us to help you decide. We'll be able to share with you the pros and cons of each solution for your unique situation as well as share with you how our other customers have made their wireless decisions.
Leftover Links
In researching and writing this blog post, following are the interesting links that I ran across that you might find useful:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PhoneWireCom/featured In searching for AT&T SinJ end-user demo videos I ran acress Matt Rygelshi's YouTube site for his St. Louis based PhoneWire telecom agency. His videos are very well organized and are well published throughout his business end-user website to make it easy on his customers and prospects.
http://www.hellodirect.com Hello Direct is the amazon.com for small business phone systems and gadgets of any flavor. When I don't have a local phone equipment provider to get this gear from I always order from Hello Direct (and have for over 15 years.) You'll pay a couple bucks extra sometimes but it's worth over ordering from a smaller website as Hellow Direct has a great return policy and they've always got people to take your phone call.
http://www.smithgear.com/info.html This is a Hello Direct-like site that I've not ordered from but they seems to have a lot of very specialized pieces of phone gear that end-users can use to cobble together nice solutions.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO ALWAYS BUY LOCAL! I list these resources to help end-users flesh out what's possible to accomplish with their technology solutions. When you're ready to buy though, please buy through your local telecom vendor. It's worth it to pay a couple extra bucks to help keep your local pros in business!
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