February 1999

Price: $1,000-$1,200 per telephone

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: 5
Documentation: 5
Features: 4.5
Overall: A

The need to stay in touch with employees regardless of where they are at your campus, warehouse, factory, or office can lead to some difficult and expensive decisions. Two-way radios are a possible answer, but they are bulky, expensive, and offer below-par audio quality, as well as being considered obsolete by some people. Pagers mean having to get to a telephone, and cellular telephones mean service fees and subscription plans. SpectraLink makes a wireless telephone system that you own and control.

INSTALLATION
Installing our evaluation units was very simple. First, you connect the included RJ-45 cable between the master unit and the base station; then, you connect an RJ-11 cable between the master unit and a digital or analog PBX extension - there are digital and analog versions of the master unit to suit appropriate PBXs. For testing purposes, we used an analog line simulator instead. After this, attach a power supply to the master unit. Also, ensure that the RJ-45 attaching to the base station goes into port B, not port A, which is reserved for modem diagnostics. Each master unit can handle either 8 or 16 base stations, and each has input/output jacks to link multiple master units. Finally, follow the manual's documentation for mounting the base stations on ceilings, roofs, etc.

Configuring the telephones is somewhat more tedious. To register the first/administrator's telephone, slide the master unit's administration switch to "register," which will cause the light on port two to flash. Press the telephone's power button for about two seconds, until the phone emits two brief chirps. This telephone is now registered. At this point, either slide the administration switch back to the "norm" position, or press the "step" button and repeat the power button/chirp process for subsequent telephones.

Once this registration process is complete for every telephone, you must configure an extension for each telephone. To do this, press and hold the telephone's FCN button until the volume level display appears, then press the #/right arrow button twice. Press the number zero to change the extension, enter a new one, and then press the end button. From this point, configuration involves programming function buttons unique to your PBX. Our experimentation and analysis of the documentation tells us that this procedure is simple, as long as you're adequately familiar with your PBX.

DOCUMENTATION
The main instruction manual is good. It includes many diagrams and is clear enough for a low-level MIS employee to handle, despite SpectraLink's recommendation of having your PBX system interconnect in the same room upon installation. What we like best about this manual is that there is a full chapter devoted to each supported PBX: 11 manufacturers are represented. There is also a planning chart and sections discussing site preparation, modem diagnostics, and administration/maintenance. The telephones come with a smaller, wallet-sized guidebook, which discusses basic telephone operation, battery charging, etc. There is also a facilities analysis document, which is used to determine how many base stations are needed and where to put them.

FEATURES
SpectraLink's is the kind of product that boasts more of its main function than miscellaneous features. Most PBXs have a feature that lets you link one number to another, causing both to ring when either extension is dialed, which is very appropriate for teaming each employee's desk telephone with their wireless telephone. Mounted on ceilings, the base units are extremely non-intrusive in the work environment, and as an organization expands, they can simply add more base stations. Each station's range is 70-700 feet - the large difference is due to factors like ceiling height, walls, building material, etc.

SpectraLink has announced a networking option that allows 1,000 base stations and more than 3,000 telephones to be a part of one system across a multi-site organization, using T1 or fiber technology to link master units. The current base stations include technology that reduces dead spots, and the Link 150 unit that we tested can operate up to four master units, combined to use 64 telephones. Users of the Link 3000 system have a 60-base station and 160-telephone maximum, all before using the networking options. The Link 3000 model can also be rack-mounted.

Another aspect of SpectraLink's feature set is the number of perimeter applications designed for it. For example, OnSite Communications makes software that transforms each SpectraLink telephone's LCD into an alphanumeric pager, Latitude Communications makes hospital/emergency room conferencing software, and Intecom has developed call center applications.

The telephones each have their own feature set, which includes headphone adapters for hands-free dialing, leather cases and belt clips, DSP technology, and an extra-large earpiece to reduce background noise. We like that the telephones are lightweight - less than a half-pound, including the leather case - and we like the simple, uncluttered buttons. Best of all, there are no external antennas to get in the way.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
What can we say? The telephones are very easy to use, the displays are easy to read, charging batteries is simple with the included one-hour quick chargers, and installing our master unit and base stations took about 15 minutes. Obviously, the installation and configuration would be far more tedious in large-scale situations.

We attempted to test linking the master unit to a Comdial PBX. To do this, we changed the Comdial settings using a dial-in terminal emulation program, but we soon realized that SpectraLink had sent us an analog master unit, which won't work with our digital lines. Had they sent us a digital unit, we're certain that this integration would have been a simple matter of programming the PBX to use wireless telephones instead of the Impact desk sets. Still, it gave us a glimpse of the SpectraLink/PBX integration process, which will usually be the most advanced portion of the installation process.

Finally, the telephones sounded fine, and we have no criticisms of them.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
The first thing that comes to mind is integration with even more PBXs and a lower cost, but neither of these issues would stop us from buying the system. We'd like to see SpectraLink address how the system will work with PC-PBXs and the new breed of voice/data switches, and we'd like to see an option that bundles the aftermarket paging/CTI software with the standard package. A bigger display on the telephones would mean a slight increase in weight, but it would also open a world of opportunity for applications that deliver e-mail, meeting reminders, etc. Finally, we recommend that SpectraLink include the optional extra-memory batteries and quick chargers as standard equipment.

CONCLUSION
This system is good enough for us to consider using in-house. Its cost may be prohibitive to smaller businesses, but for mid- to large-sized organizations it's a great investment with the possibility for a swift return. This system is very high quality, and we endorse it with our Editors' Choice award.