Wave Industries delivers first Bluetooth-enabled 2.4 GHz expandable Cordless Data Phone system for the home.

With wireless phones now a standard fixture in most American homes--76 percent of U.S. households have them--tech-savvy consumers are looking ahead to the industry's next innovation. Wave Industries Ltd. has announced availability of the Olympia-branded CDP-24201, a 2.4 GHz Bluetooth Cordless Data Phone (CDP) system for the home. The Olympia 2.4 GHz CDP is the first multi-handset, cordless phone to offer simultaneous voice and data access that lets mobile devices--PDAs, laptops and mobile phones--connect wirelessly at broadband speeds.

Wave Industries is also introducing a series of Bluetooth peripherals for use with the CDP system, including the Olympia Bluetooth Headset, an earpiece that can be used with the CDP or a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to provide the freedom to talk hands-free in the home or car. Also new is the Olympia Bluetooth USB Wireless Dongle, a USB peripheral used to create a wireless connection between a computer--including desktop systems--and the CDP phone, and the Olympia Bluetooth Flash Card and PCMCIA Adaptor, a dual mode device that combines Compact Flash and PCMCIA interfaces to let users create a wireless connection between a PDA or a laptop computer and the CDP phone.

The CDP and accessories are being announced recently at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Booth #30213 Las Vegas Convention Center South 3 & 4. The Olympia CDP-24201 was recognized by CES, for its innovative design, as an honoree in the Telephones category of the Innovations 2003 Design and Engineering Showcase.

The Olympia 2.4 GHz CDP lets consumers chat on the phone using a Bluetooth headset while wirelessly surfing the Internet or accessing email on a laptop anywhere in the home--all from a single cordless data phone. The Bluetooth v1.1 standard allows devices to connect wirelessly from an average distance of 30 feet. To boost the range, the Olympia CDP uses Class 1, a high-powered Bluetooth, to let users maintain a connection from a range of more than 800 feet with a clear line of sight or up to 150 feet in a home.

Users can expand the phone system with up to seven additional handsets--all from a single phone line. Since only 28 percent of U.S. online households connect to the Internet via a broadband connection today, according to a November, 2002 Gartner Inc./Dataquest Inc. survey, consumers without broadband access can still gain wireless connectivity via the 56K v.90 data modem built into the CDP base, rather than needing access to a phone jack. Furthermore, during the 28-month survey period, the rate of broadband Internet use in the United States nearly tripled, resulting in a nine percent average monthly growth rate.

"The CDP extends our family of cordless phones and incorporates the latest innovations in wireless technology via Bluetooth to serve as gateway for wireless home networking. Consumers can connect PCs, laptops and cell phones to the CDP via the phone's base station to gain wireless, broadband Internet access throughout the home. The CDP lets you simultaneously access the Internet or email while talking on the phone--all for the same price as a standard two-line phone that doesn't include data access," said Bruce Garfield, chief executive officer, Wave Industries Ltd. "The Olympia brand represents 100 years of innovation and quality, and the CDP phone system is another proof point in the company's history."

The CDP-24201 is an expandable phone system, loaded with top-of-the-line calling features users can access from multiple areas of their home or small home office (SOHO). The feature-packed base station is a two-line phone complete with an integrated 56K v.90 data modem, a speakerphone, and the ability to interact with up to seven additional handsets. The phone uses a 2.4 GHz digital spread spectrum to let consumers add additional handsets to the system without the need for a separate phone line or phone jacks for each handset. Consumers can also store up to 100 of their most important numbers in the phone base station for one-touch dialing--even from the handset.

Each handset can be used for voice or data. Handsets feature a deluxe, graphical LCD screen and icon-driven menu for easy navigation, as well as a speakerphone and a headset socket. Handsets can be personalized for each individual user with programmable ring tones, the ability to select the navigation language displayed--English, German, French or Spanish, personal phone books with storage for 40 additional numbers in each handset and storage for 20 numbers in the missed call and redial memory.

The CDP also includes the Olympia Dataphone Manager software, which provides a convenient way to organize phonebooks and configuration settings on the handsets and base station. It also lets users synchronize contacts stored in applications such as Microsoft Outlook with their CDP phone. New features such as languages and ring tones will be available for download from the Web site as they become available.