SAN FRANCISCO-Noting there have been several false starts in the wireless PBX market, Allen Telecom Group last week introduced its SmartCell Dialogue Cellular PBX at Wireless ’97 here.
The Allen Telecom product addresses several obstacles cellular carriers have faced when trying to market a cellular PBX system, according to Dr. Chris Morton, Allen Telecom Systems Division president. To date, the wireless PBX market has been stifled because its system is more expensive than a wired PBX, the products have not been scalable, products have only worked with a specific PBX product and wireless PBX systems have operated in unlicensed frequency bands.
The cost for a cellular PBX network “has to be within shouting distance” of its wired counterpart, Morton noted. SmartCell Dialogue is priced at under $750 per user.
The system can be scaled from small users to a large campus environment, depending on an organization’s needs, but is most cost effective for companies with 75 or more wireless users. It will be targeted to corporate and industrial campuses, as well as educational and medical facilities, Allen Telecom said.
The product uses a single handset for the PBX application as well as outdoor cellular use and it works with any existing PBX. The handset supports traditional PBX features, including three-digit internal calling, three-way calling and call forwarding.
“With many cordless office telephone systems, the phone becomes little more than a paperweight once the user leaves his or her building,” Morton said. “With SmartCell Dialogue, the company can merge PBX and cellular use into one cost-effective package.”
The PBX service will give cellular carriers the advantage of locking in major accounts to their cellular network, creating new customers who use the phones outside of the PBX environment and providing additional airtime use.
Allen Telecom expects to complete its systems tests in June, install beta networks in July and have commercial product available in August.
The SmartCell Dialogue has a distributed antenna system, low-power base station and controller.
