KirkDECT systems ... anyone with knowledge/experience?

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 …

  1. the sheer cost … GBP ?6000 for hardware. the handsets themselves are GBP?160 each as a minimum.

  2. 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.

  3. 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)