Cisco Announces WiFi Phone Aimed at Companies

WiFi continues its rampage:

The phone, being announced Monday, is intended for those who move around in the workplace, like nurses and warehouse workers, San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco said.

It is not the first phone to use WiFi, but the announcement from networking giant Cisco bolsters the already considerable momentum behind the wireless technology, which allows computers to connect to the Internet within 100 yards of base stations.

The Cisco Wireless IP Phone 7920 can use such base stations to connect to phone networks that use the local wired data network instead of regular phone lines.

Such IP, or Internet Protocol, phone networks have been gaining in popularity among corporations.

….The phone can also be used in hospitals, some of which ban cell phones because the radio signals may interfere with medical electronics.

It will list for $595, has 3.5 hours of talk time and 24 hours of standby time per charge.

Analyst Galen Schreck at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. said most companies that use WiFi have relatively isolated areas of coverage, meaning mobile WiFi phones are somewhat ahead of their time.

“It’s for a cutting-edge kind of company,” he said, noting that equipment is on the way that makes full-coverage WiFi networks easier to set up. [AP]