Cat-IQ bypasses Wifi jams

Products using a new version of the Dect technology used in home cordless phones will start to appear this autumn, offering better voice quality and new features.

But perhaps the most important aspect of the new system, cumbersomely entitled Cordless Advanced Technology – Internet and Quality (Cat-IQ), is that in Europe it operates at around 1.9GHz, offering a less noisy alternative to the crowded 2.4GHz band used by Wifi and Bluetooth.

Dect phones in the US use 2.4GHz and so lack this advantage. But European device makers realised – even before Cat-IQ was announced – that Dect can complement Wifi (see below).

Dect was designed for voice, unlike Wifi which has had the quality-of-service controls bolted on. Cat-IQ increases the data rate tenfold to 380Kbits/second – slow by Wifi standards but good enough for several voice calls.

And these use wideband channels: that is, they cover a wider range of frequencies than those of an old steam telephone call, and so offer higher quality. This enhanced quality will feature in the first raft of Cat-IQ products, due to ship this summer.

“The voice quality is brilliant,” said John Smith, head of UK operations for Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices (SHC), which will launch a Cat-IQ gateway and phone this summer that is capable of switching between IP and standard calls. It will also address up to six IP phones, handle two web calls and one dial-up at once, and support six Sip accounts and instant messaging.

The gateway will connect with a wireless router, enabling the system to co-exist with a Wifi network. But unlike Wifi dual-mode phones, Cat-IQ models will not have to compete with other local network traffic.

Smith believes this will generate a market for a new type of conference phone with which “the grandparents can call their grandchildren as they sit round the device and talk as if they are in the same room”.

Future devices will include internet radio, home control systems, and support for web services such as Yellow Pages.