[PGH]

This isn't 100% computer related, but seeing as I always get such good responses on this site ...

If it is possible to have a data/internet network routed wirelessly around a building, which would otherwise use CAT5 wiring, is it possible to do the same with a telephone network which would otherwise use CAT5 wiring?

To elaborate a little, we need a business-style telephone system (with multiple lines, call transferringe etc.) like, say, a Meridian Norstar system, however full CAT5 wiring would prove problematic, so if CAT5 wiring can be replaced by wireless for computer signals could the same be done for voice?

Basically I would want something like this

___________ main switchboard__ wireless transmitter -------------------- wireless receiver ____ extension
line in -------------------- wireless receiver ____ extension
etc.

Could, even, standard LAN wireless hubs/routers be used? The main switchboards of most telephone systems simply have lots of CAT5 out ports, so could they all be connected to a transmitter, then each of the phone points (which take CAT5 in) be connected to a wireless receiver?

Thanks for any responses

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it is true that you can run voice over cat5 or 5e or 6 even though the original standard was 4...but this cannot be done as you suggest...because the phone information get's routed in a different protocol....you could contact your phone system supplier and see if they have a wireless sollution......in theory you might be able to use a voip system for this....but even then...i'm not sure if it's possible and if it is...i have no idea how it would be done

[dsenette]

it is true that you can run voice over cat5 or 5e or 6 even though the original standard was 4...but this cannot be done as you suggest...because the phone information get's routed in a different protocol....you could contact your phone system supplier and see if they have a wireless sollution......in theory you might be able to use a voip system for this....but even then...i'm not sure if it's possible and if it is...i have no idea how it would be done

[PGH]

Hmm, yes thanks. I thought that the phone data might be different somehow. You can get VOICEIP wireless systems, but they don't run off normal phone lines/have the features we'd need. For example you can't make calls to certain numbers/countries via some of the internet call systems I see advertised here.

I was really wondering if it'd be possible because you can get phone systems with 'structured wiring' which runs both DSL internet and voice over CAT5e (I think) cabling, so I was wondering if they could both be lumped together. The telephone providers won't talk about wireless, they just endlessly recommend DECT systems with lots of handsets, but no features like allowance for more than one line. I might ask an independent wireless network installer, perhaps, because they got me a uniquely muddled (but good!) internet distrubution system with a mixture of CAT5 and CAT5 joined to wireless transmitters and receivers.

It's strange, though, that the can't do it/you don't see it advertised at all, because surely there'd be a market for a fully functional telephone system, without the bother and expense of running CAT5 everywhere. Maybe a wireless system would risk corrupting/muddling the data, or insert a noticeable delay in communication?

[dsenette]

well...see...the cable or the medium isn't the issue...you can run phone, and data over the same cable because the info is just an electrical signal being pushed down the pipe and decoded on th e other end....same with wireless technically...it's radio signals pushed through the air and decoded on the other end...the problem is the coder/decoder type of deal...there's no protocol for runing voice traffic (at least to my knowledge there isn't i could be horribly wrong) over a standard wireless network type system....especially not for complex pbx style multilline phone systems

[PGH]

Well I expect you're right, and anyway if one did exist I'd probably have found it via Google. I had assumed that general internet wireless transmitters and receivers could take pretty much any input, break it up into wireless communication packages and then reassemble it, but of course now I see it has to know what sort of data it is dealing with. I'm sure it would be possible though (in theroy) if you can get wireless audio distrubution around a building, wireless full-colour CCTV etc.

[dsenette]

right...i'm sure it's theoretically possible..but i don't have any models to base that off of...nor can i find any reference of such an implementation

[PGH]

So who's going to harness this and make millions from it: the telephone system which you can plug and play and have ready to go in less than 2 hours?!