VoIP effort is first phone based on Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, IFA show told.
Koninklijke Philips Electronics has announced a new phone that allows users of Skype.’s Internet telephony service to make calls without having to boot up their PCs.
The VoIP phone, the VOIP841, is the first such phone to be based on DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) technology, Rudy Provoost, chief executive officer of the Philips Consumer Electronics division, said Thursday at a news conference at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
On Thursday, Skype separately announced that Netgear will also deliver a Skype phone that operates without a PC.
Typically, Skype phones work through a computer or a laptop. The new Philips and Netgear phones plug into a broadband connection jack and a standard home phone jack. They can send and receive Skype calls over the Internet as well as calls from a regular home phone number.
The VOIP841 is expected to be available in December, Provoost said. He gave no pricing information.
Availability and pricing details about the Netgear phone were not immediately available.
The new generation of phones could help Skype reach a larger group of consumers who are not tech-savvy and tend to shy away from phone gadgets that require computer knowledge.
In July, Skype announced that several manufacturers, including Netgear, planned to deliver phones preloaded with the VoIP service provider’s software client. The phones were slated to hit the market in the third quarter.
