DECT: a viable alternative to walkie talkies

Manish Punjabi

August 08, 2016

Walkie-Talkies are a great communication tool for a variety of businesses.

Walkie-Talkies are a great communication tool for a variety of businesses. One sees walkie-talkies in Hotels, Hospitals, Factories, Restaurants, etc., to serve a simple and single purpose – communicate quickly with a small ecosystem of similar devices. I.e. a press of a button and the user can broadcast message in short bursts to its group of connected devices.

However, while walkie-talkies are cheap to implement and offer simplistic usage, they only afford communication (as its sole feature) over the publicly available radio spectrum. This spectrum often comes with an annual licensing fee as is the case in the UAE, where the local agency, Telecom and Regulatory Authority (TRA), charges AED 500 per device. That is approximately $150 annually to use a single device! Furthermore, messages on walkie-talkies are often accompanied by background static due to the very nature of communication technology. And finally, as walkie-talkies use the publicly available spectrum, they are insecure for anything but mundane exchanges.

The benefits of DECT or Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications technology are many fold when compared to those of Walkie-Talkies, especially for large campus networks such as factories and warehouses.

• DECT phones bring the power of the desk phone to employees in the field – i.e., mobile and remote workers on a campus can make and receive calls on their palm sized device, listen to voice-mail, call-by-name, etc.,
• DECT devices offer safety alarms such as Man-Down notification where if a worker falls on the ground, the system alerts supervisors and/or others,
• When remote workers enter different facilities (geographically distant from the main site but interconnected), the system automatically identifies and authenticates the users to use the phone,
• and finally, there are no annual licensing fees for DECT devices to the local telecom agency.

The preliminary financial implication of a DECT system is considerable because it includes a PABX that provides the vast array of features outlined above. Versus that, a stand-alone Walkie-Talkie system offers minimalist features for a consequent lower capital outlay and simple set up. However when compared to the walkie-talkies licensing cost over 4 or 5 years and feature set, any DECT investment makes a valuable business case for itself. Find out for yourself today!