It’s been a long time coming. According to Clear-Com (Vitec Group), the FCC is in the final stages of approval for the use of CellCom10 in the US. Popularly know as FreeSpeak10 in Europe and elsewhere, the name was changed for the US and Canadian markets due to trademark issues.

UPDATE (12-05-2005) : The FCC has approved the CellCom10 for use in the US, and is already in use at Harpo Studios in Chicago.

It’s been slow going for Clear-Com on this one. They have been showing mockups and feature descriptions of the product at trade shows for at least a couple of years.

CellCom is a revolutionary new concept in wireless intercom, combining license-free digital transmission with an intelligent base station that interconnects with wired communications. Go beyond the typical wireless party-line or even two-channel capability, with one-to-one and group conversations initiated from your beltpack!

CellCom10 supports up to 10 drops and operates using an active transceiver network. The transceivers are strategically placed throughout the desired coverage area and connected back to the base using standard CAT5 connections. The system as whole acts very much like a mini cell phone network, managing the movement of each beltpack from one transceiver to another.

CellCom10 also has the capability to interface with 2 standard party-line channels of com or 4 cross points on a digital matrix, such as the Eclipse or Matrix3 lines, greatly expanding up wireless communications possibilities.

Clear-Com also has a CellCom50 which supports 50 drops, which has not been approved for use in the US.