Uniden Announces First DECT Products

By Greg Scoblete On Oct 9 2006 - 6:00am

Fort Worth, Texas — Uniden announced its first cordless phone products based on DECT 6.0 technology, last week.

The new phones will be expandable up to six handsets per base station and each handset can recognize up to four base stations, allowing the system to support a total of 24 handsets on a single phone number.

Uniden will introduce two models, the 1060 and 1080 along with the DCX 100 accessory handset, this fall.

Both models will ship with two handsets in the box. The handsets are capable of storing up to 100 phonebook numbers and feature speakerphones, caller ID, trilingual menu displays, schedule reminders, and personalized ring-tones for pre-set callers. Other handset features can be customized as well.

The step-up 1080 will offer a built-in digital answering machine with remote access. Pricing was not announced.

DECT 6.0 technology operates on the 1.9GHz frequency band which was recently allocated to cordless telephony in the U.S. by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). According to Uniden, DECT 6.0 incorporates “listen before transmit” technology which allows it to avoid interference with products on the 2.4GHz frequency, such as baby monitors, microwaves and Wi-Fi networks, in addition to interference from other DECT 6.0 products as more people adopt 1.9GHz.

The technology will also allow for improved voice clarity, security and longer battery life vs. other technologies, Uniden said. The phones sport a talk time of up to 16 hours and a 7-day standby time.

The company's entry into DECT phones comes courtesy of a recently announced partnership with Hong Kong-based SunCorp Technologies. Uniden announced that it had acquired a 20 percent stake in SunCorp in August to position itself to offer DECT and Bluetooth-based communications products in the U.S. and global market.