i’ve been asked at very short notice to quote for an Asterisk system with a difference. they only want 10 fixed phones, but they also want 20 cordless DECT phones to operate in a factory that’s about 200m by 50m with very little internal walling.
obviously, 20 FXS ports and “normal” DECT/GAP phones aren’t going to cut it, and from what i’ve found on the wiki/google, there don’t seem to be many options for a bigger system that isn’t proprietary.
the KirkDECT system stands out though as it’s H.323 (certified for Cisco and a couple of others at least), which reduces the cabling to a single CAT5, can be extended with repeaters (i figure 6 for this install) which ensure the call is kept as the user moves around.
but 3 things bother me …
-
the sheer cost … GBP ?6000 for hardware. the handsets themselves are GBP?160 each as a minimum.
-
the fact it’s H.323 (it does SCCP as well, but you wouldn’t would you !). Asterisk never seems to like stopping when H.323 is loaded.
-
none of the resellers seem to have had much experience with anything other than Cisco software/integration.
so, back OT, does anyone have any experience with KirkDECT, or knows of a DECT alternative ?? (i’m looking at the possibility of SIP WiFi now too)