In this blog, we cover what DECT is, what the advantages of DECT headsets are, and answer a common question: can you use a DECT Headset with a smartphone?
DECT is one of the two primary protocols for wireless headsets, the other being Bluetooth. It’s a very well-established protocol with origins dating back to the late 1980s. DECT is a European standard in origin and is widely used in many parts of the world.
The standard specifies a section of the wireless spectrum over which DECT communications travel. Because the original European DECT specifications conflict with other North American standards, in the United States, we use DECT 6.0, which specifies a slightly different section of the wireless spectrum. (Strangely, “6.0” is just a marketing term and doesn’t actually indicate that it’s the sixth generation of the standard, as you might guess!)
All you need to know about DECT is this: it’s a reliable, well-established standard for wireless telecommunications. And that’s why it’s used for wireless headsets so often.
The advantages of DECT for wireless headsets
When it comes to using DECT for business communications, it offers three primary advantages:
- Wireless range. DECT has a much greater wireless range than Bluetooth. A DECT headset might have a range of four to five times or more than that of a comparable Bluetooth headset. This means worry-free wandering for the user.
- Reduce spectrum density. Wireless protocols use specific sections of the wireless spectrum. If too many devices are using the same section of the spectrum, this can lead to disruption, signal loss, and so on. In a given office space, there will be a lot of Bluetooth devices: smartphones, headsets, tablets, headphones, and so on. All of these devices are competing for the same slice of wireless spectrum. DECT uses a different section of the wireless spectrum. Because there are, typically, far fewer DECT devices, you get a more reliable signal at the same time as reducing congestion in the Bluetooth spectrum. In busy offices, this is a big advantage.
- Enhanced security. Many, though not all, implementations of DECT for headsets feature enhanced security to protect your wireless communications. For example, Jabra Engage 55 features, according to the company, “DECT Security Step C level with additional FIPS military-grade 256-bit encryption algorithms.” We don’t need to tell you about how important communications security is in the world today!
For these reasons, and more, DECT is used for wireless headsets.
The primary disadvantage of DECT is that, unlike Bluetooth, it doesn’t have wide device support. While essentially every smartphone and tablet supports Bluetooth, as far as we know none supports DECT.
So how do you use a DECT headset? A DECT headset comes with a base station. The headset communicates with the base station, while the base station connects to other devices, like a computer or VoIP phones. Some base stations connect to only one device at a time, while others, like the base station for Poly Savi 7310 Office, can connect to multiple devices at the same time, letting you use the headset with, for example, your VoIP phone and your work computer at the same time.
Typically, the base station connects to these other devices via a cable, although we’re going to cover a second option in just a second…
Some manufacturers have started to replace the traditional DECT base station with a plug-and-play USB dongle, similar to the Wi-Fi dongle or Bluetooth dongle that you use to enable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity on computers or VoIP phones. To use a wireless headset with a DECT dongle like Yealink WH62 Portable, all you need to do is plug the dongle into the phone or PC, select the headset as the audio peripheral, and you’re good to go.
Let’s get back to that “second option” we just mentioned and answer the question: Can you use a DECT headset with a smartphone?
Using DECT headsets with smartphones
Yes, some DECT headsets can be used with a smartphone. However, because no smartphone that we know of supports DECT natively, you cannot use a DECT headset with a smartphone directly.
You have to use a DECT headset in conjunction with a base station that can connect to a smartphone.
If you want to use a DECT headset with a mobile phone, you need a DECT headset whose base station supports Bluetooth, like Jabra Engage 75 or Yealink WH66.
The headset uses DECT to communicate with the base and the base uses Bluetooth to communicate with the smartphone. The experience is essentially the same that you get when using a DECT headset with any other device.
One thing to remember: the wireless range of your headset in this arrangement is determined by the Bluetooth connection between the smartphone and the base station. This means that you won’t get the full DECT wireless range.