The DECT Forum, the international association of the wireless home and enterprise communication industry, is pleased to announce the availability of CAT-iq White Papers. The White Papers – part 1 “voice” and part 2 “data” – outline the current status and the future profile descriptions of CAT-iq – the technology of choice for voice and data applications.

CAT-iq stands for Cordless Advanced Technology, Internet and Quality, and is the global technology initiative from the DECT Forum, designed for IP-voice services in the next generation networks. CAT-iq focuses on high quality wideband Audio VoIP as well as low bit-rate data applications. The CAT-iq profiles are split between voice and data services, with CAT-iq 1.0 and CAT-iq 2.0 providing features to support key voice enhancements, and CAT-iq 3.0 and CAT-iq 4.0 providing features to support data.

CAT-iq is firmly positioned as a key broadband access technology. CAT-iq has the unique opportunity to continue cordless telephony’s conquest of huge segments of the world’s population, and introduce data services into homes complementing those offered by WLAN and Bluetooth. When reach, standby and talk time, cost and of course voice quality are paramount, CAT-iq is the technology of choice. The Certification process for CAT-iq 2.0 will start in September 2010, enabling market deployment of a new generation of products of various manufacturers before the end of this year.

“The White Papers – part 1 “Voice” and part 2 “data” – provide a comprehensive and detailed portray of the CAT-iq technology and its profiles. With first CAT-iq 2.0 products being available still in 2010, the White Papers will feed the growing interest in CAT-iq as a leading global wireless technology”, says Daniel Hartnett, Chairman of the CAT-iq Working Group within the DECT Forum.

The White Papers are publicly available on the DECT Forum’s CAT-iq website

Deutsche Telekom is presenting the Speedphone 300 – a handset with an integrated DECT base for use with T-Home Speedports – at the World of Consumer Electronics trade fair (IFA 2009). Users can not only make fixed-network phone calls, but also use internet services such as RSS feeds or email notification. The Speedphone has a jack headset connection and is update-capable, making it easy for customers to add new functions in the future. The Speedphone 300 is equipped with the latest software and is initially configured for use with the Speedport W 920V WLAN/DSL router.

The Speedphone enables you to receive service messages such as RSS feeds on, for example, sport, politics or business. The device also notifies you about incoming emails, which you can read directly on the phone's display without having to turn on the PC. In addition to the internet-based services, the Speedphone 300 offers standard functions such as open listening and handsfree mode, hold, alternating, call waiting and three-way conference; it displays the names of known numbers. In addition, it actively informs you on any missed calls and answerphone messages.

The new handset uses the Speedport W 920V's central telephone directory. Individual entries can contain up to three phone numbers (private, business, mobile). In conjunction with the Speedport, the Speedphone 300 also makes it easy to operate the answering machine. Another advantage is that the Speedphone is future-proof, upgradable for internet telephony (VoIP), and supports the new DECT standard CAT-iq (= Cordless Advanced Techno-logy – internet and quality). This makes high-quality-voice phone calls over the internet possible if the person you are calling has a phone that also supports this standard.

The Speedphone 300 is equipped with an energy-efficient power supply unit to save electricity. The standby time is approximately 120 hours, the talk time about twelve hours. The handset comes with a charger, a battery pack and a power supply unit.

Deutsche Telekom hopes a planned reorganisation of its fixed and wireless business will boost sales by hundreds of millions of euros, its head of sales and service in Germany said on Wednesday.

Some 29 million households are Deutsche Telekom customers and 58 percent of those have only fixed-line connections, Niek Jan van Damme told journalists.

"If we can tap into at least 1 percent and add wireless that could raise revenue by a three-digit million-euro sum," he said without being more specific.

T-Mobile Germany posted sales of 1.87 billion euros ($2.60 billion) in the first quarter of this year.

Deutsche Telekom is preparing for the merger of its German fixed-line and wireless units into a single division, which it started in 2006.

The step will need to be approved at a supervisory board meeting scheduled for the end of next month and at an extraordinary general meeting in November.

Van Damme, who used to head T-Mobile's Dutch business, said benefits from the reorganisation will start to kick in next year.

Deutsche Telekom hopes to benefit as customers increasingly use smart phones such as Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone or the G1 phone for Internet access or laptops that use fixed and mobile networks.

Source Reuters

The IP set top box market grew 55 percent in 2008, but such breakneck growth will not continue, reports In-Stat. Many telcos have already launched TV services, so there are fewer new customer prospects. In addition, the economic climate is sapping investment in new telco TV systems.

“Established telco TV providers like France Telecom, AT&T, Free, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and China Telecom provided much of the subscriber growth that drives the demand for IP set top boxes,” says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst. “We expect this situation to continue in 2009 and 2010. However with few new deployments, unit shipments of IP set top boxes will see only slight increases in 2009 and 2010.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

More than 50% of 2009 IP set top box unit shipments in Western Europe will have hard disk drives.

• Among the key technology trends are improved power management and support for 3D graphics, multiple codecs, and open software platforms.
• The average bill of materials for an HD IP set top box will fall below $50 in 2010. 
• Among the semiconductor competitors providing solutions for the IP set top box market are Broadcom, CopperGate, Intel, NXP, Sigma Designs, and STMicroelectronics. 
• Motorola held onto the top market share position in IP set top boxes in 2008, but its market share slipped from 2007 as Cisco ramped up shipments.