Editing DECT (section)

==DECT for data networks==
Other interoperability profiles exist in the DECT suite of standards, and in particular the DPRS (DECT Packet Radio Services) bring together a number of prior interoperability profiles for the use of DECT as a wireless LAN and wireless internet access service. With good range (up to {{convert|200|m|ft}} indoors and {{convert|6|km|mi}} using directional antennae outdoors), dedicated spectrum, high interference immunity, open interoperability and data speeds of around 500&nbsp;kbit/s, DECT appeared at one time to be a superior alternative to [[Wi-Fi]].<ref>{{cite news
 | url = http://scitation.aip.org/vsearch/servlet/VerityServlet?KEY=CCEJEL&smode=strresults&sort=chron&maxdisp=25&threshold=0&possible1=flatman&possible1zone=article&OUTLOG=NO&viewabs=CCEJEL&key=DISPLAY&docID=1&page=1&chapter=0
 | title = Wireless LANs: developments in technology and standards
 | publisher = IEE Journal of Computing and Control Engineering
 | date = October 1994
}}</ref> The protocol capabilities built into the DECT networking protocol standards were particularly good at supporting fast roaming in the public space, between hotspots operated by competing but connected providers. The first DECT product to reach the market, Olivetti's [[Net3|Net<sup>3</sup>]], was a wireless LAN, and German firms [[Dosch & Amand]] and [[Hoeft & Wessel]] built niche businesses on the supply of data transmission systems based on DECT.

However, the timing of the availability of DECT, in the mid-1990s, was too early to find wide application for wireless data outside niche industrial applications. Whilst contemporary providers of Wi-Fi struggled with the same issues, providers of DECT retreated to the more immediately lucrative market for cordless telephones. A key weakness was also the inaccessibility of the U.S. market, due to FCC spectrum restrictions at that time. By the time mass applications for wireless Internet had emerged, and the U.S. had opened up to DECT, well into the new century, the industry had moved far ahead in terms of performance and DECT's time as a technically competitive wireless data transport had passed.