Cordless System Tie

Wireless Professional cordless tie clip clip-on Lapel Mic system NEW US $16.99

NEW Wireless Professional cordless tie clip clip-on Lapel Mic system US $15.99

Powered by phpBay Pro

Setting up a "private cell phone network" that would allow people to use their existing cell phones would be a bit of a challenge - especially if the different people have different cell phones from different service providers... For example, T-Mobile and AT&T use GSM/EDGE/UMTS while Verizon Wireless and Sprint use CDMA/1xRTT/1xEv-DO. You cannot use a GSM phone on a CDMA network and vice-versa.

Even if everyone used the same cell carrier (and transmission technology), the cell phone service provider bought the (expensive) frequency licenses to use the frequencies, so you would need their permission. And likely permission from the FCC.

Your company's IT folks would be able to easily find IP-based phones that could use the wifi (wireless LAN) at the facility - if 802.11 g/n is installed there. This would also tie into the company's phone system. It would be best if it was an IP-based VoIP phone system - or if a gateway between the TDM PBX and the Wireless VoIP terminals is installed to bridge those networks.

If everyone uses the same cell phone service provide (or if the company provides the phones and service), contact the service provider and see what their plans are for "FMC" (fixed mobile convergence) which uses cell phones with normal cell network connections AND a wifi transmitter/receiver built in to the (new)phone... or if the carrier is doing anything with femto cells - these allow small cell network base stations (using the cell phone service provider's frequencies) in poor coverage areas but are generally targeted to residential or small business and are not directly tied in to your company's PBX. There's been some talk of "pico" cells (bigger than femto, smaller than the large regular "macro"), but I have not heard of anyone developing or deploying them yet... These would not be directly tied to your company's PBX, either.

The problem with repeaters is that the cell phone company has responsibility to provide accurate location information in case of an emergency. Sometimes this is done using the GPS information in the phone. When indoors, it is possible that the GPS information cannot be updated by the phone because the satellite signal cannot get to the phone - in that case, the e911 location system uses a triangulation method that uses the time it takes to travel from the handset to (at least 3 - more is better) cell phone service provider radio towers. When you use a third party repeater, that "round trip delay" is not accurate. In an emergency - if the facility is large - locating that handset using the thrid party repeater will be extremely difficult and might not provide the FCC-specified location information accuracy.

Those "rather bulky (and expensive) cordless phones, which are tied into our PBX" may be the best bet, currently. From a security perspective, making the phones small and "sexy" begs for them to be stolen - even if they can't be used at home or outside the work area, and the thief won't want to bring it back...

As for small cordless phones that would connect to the PBX using an analog port (probably like those in use today), try hellodirect.