Gigaset AG, formerly known as Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices is a multinational corporation based in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany. Its main business is in home electronics, including corded and cordless phones, voice over ip (VoIP) phones.

History

Gigaset Communications was established on October 1, 2008, when Arques Industries, a private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 firm acquired 80.2% equity interest in Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices GmbH & Co. KG (SHC) from Siemens AG.

Products and services

Gigaset creates numerous products for home and small office use:

• Corded phones: The company sells their analog phones by the brand "euroset".

• Cordless phones: Specializing in DECT technology, Gigaset offers a wide variety of wireless phones (900Mhz, 2.4Ghz and DECT), and ISDN phones.

• VoIP phones: A variety of cordless (DECT) VoIP products are available. Certain products offer free calls using gigaset.net SIP
  Session Initiation Protocol
  The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions...
  
   network.

• Broadband products: Gigaset offers ADSL modems, home gateways, Wireless LAN
  Wireless LAN
  A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...
  
   routers, access points and wireless accessories. Prior to Gigaset brand, the company launched modems with the SpeedStream brand, such as the obsolete 4200 modem.

• Home Media: Gigaset offers several digital TV receivers divided in three categories: Satellite TV receivers, Terrestrial TV receivers and Cable TV receivers.

• Network management software: Gigaset created NetGuru, a software platform that helps users set-up and manage home networks. The tool targets operators and ISPs, as well as consumers.

• WiMAX: Gigaset also makes WiMAX
  WiMAX
  WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
  
   CPEs. This line of products range from WiMAX express cards for new notebooks such as the SE68, to full blown WiMAX gateways with integrated wi-fi
  Wi-Fi
  Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
  
   technology and FXS port for VoIP, such as the SX682. Gigaset works with 802.16d and 802.16e standards.

Gigaset.net

Gigaset.net is a free phone service provided by the company to customers who acquire certain VoIP phones. Users can edit a nickname in the phone, search for buddies and make free calls to other users. The only requirement is that the customer has broadband connection.

Furthermore, the Gigaset.net network offers free RSS

RSS

-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...

 subscription to a number of services called Info Service. The basic services provided are weather and horoscope, which are shown scrolling on the phone display. Users can add custom RSS feeds, and watch them on phone screen. More recently, the company started offering ability to monitor e-Bay auctions.

ECO Dect

Gigaset created ECO DECT technology whereby radio wave transmission is switched off when the handset is charging in its base station and 60% of the energy is saved by using low-energy switched mode power supply units.

ECO DECT consists of two elements:

• Less power consumption by using switched-mode power supply unit (PSU).

• Reduction of the transmission power. This is done in two forms. First, transmission power is adjusted according to the handset's distance to the base station. Second, transmission power is turned off when the handset is docked and charging.

A "green home" logo is often used to show that the product is eco-friendly. The company employs a marketing campaign with the slogan "Make a little difference".

High Sound Performance

Gigaset created High Sound Performance (HSP) to provide higher sound quality to normal analog land-line

Land-line

In the UK Land-Line is a comprehensive dataset, provided by Ordnance Survey, depicting man-made and natural features ranging from houses, factories, roads and rivers to marshland and administrative boundaries. Land-Line is a vector format ....

 phones. Many of the company's newest phones incorporate this technology.

High Definition Sound Performance

High Definition Sound Performance (HDSP) enables with an even higher sound quality than HSP, although for "normal" land-line phone users there is no sound difference, since this is a service available only to VoIP customers with the G.722 codec. Also, phones require a broadband connection and are limited to the company's VoIP phones such as the A580IP and users of other phones that use the G722 codec. HDSP technology uses the G.722

G.722

G.722 is a ITU-T standard 7 kHz wideband speech codec operating at 48, 56 and 64 kbit/s. It was approved by ITU-T in November 1988. Technology of the codec is based on sub-band ADPCM ....

 wideband audio

Wideband Audio

Wideband audio is an audio technology used in telephony. It extends the frequency range of audio signals transmitted over telephone lines, resulting in higher quality speech. The range of the human voice extends from 80 Hz to 14 kHz but traditional, voiceband or narrowband telephone calls limit...

 (or HD audio) codec which provides audio with a frequency response up to 7kHz.

CAT-iq

Gigaset has also integrated CAT-iq

CAT-iq

CAT-iq stands for Cordless Advanced Technology—internet and quality and is a global technology initiative from the DECT Forum.-Background:...

technology on several VoIP phones and all phones supporting HDSP are CAT-iq compliant.