Key takeaways:
- DECT base stations and handsets now live in Controvo, managed the same way as desk phones.
- The Phones view has a Manage / DECT / FXS toggle, so DECT sits under Phones instead of in a separate corner of the app.
- Each DECT base has its own editor; the model is fixed once created, like a desk phone’s MAC.
- You can attach an extension to a DECT base directly from the extension’s IP Phone tab, and detach it the same way.
- Attach or detach from either side (the extension or the base) and it shows up in both places.
Cordless phones were the gap in the inventory
If you manage 3CX for customers with warehouses, care homes, hotels, or shop floors, you have DECT handsets in the field. Cordless phones roaming off a base station are how a lot of real workplaces actually make calls. Until now, Controvo could show you every desk phone across every customer, but the DECT side of the estate lived somewhere else, usually the 3CX console, one system at a time.
That’s the usual story with cordless: it gets managed by whoever set it up, on whatever system it’s on, and it never quite makes it into the central inventory. Then a base needs re-provisioning or a handset walks off, and you’re logging into a specific PBX to figure out what’s attached to what.
We wanted DECT to be a first-class asset in Controvo, not a footnote.
What shipped
DECT phones now sit inside the same Phones view you already use, under a Manage / DECT / FXS toggle at the top. Flip to DECT and you get the base stations for the systems you’re looking at, whether that’s the 3CX Assets page, a customer, or a single phone system. There’s no separate tab hiding off to the side; DECT is a sub-view of Phones, where you’d look for it.
A real editor for each base
Every DECT base has its own editor. The model is set when the base is created and shown as a read-only value after that, the same way a desk phone’s MAC and phone system are fixed once they exist, so you’re not second-guessing which hardware a record points at. Connection method and provisioning URL are laid out as their own sections rather than crammed together.
Attach a handset from the extension side
Here’s the part that saves the round trip. When an extension’s phone system already has a DECT base, the extension’s IP Phone tab shows a Desk Phone / DECT toggle. Switch it to DECT, pick a base on that system, and attach the extension to it as a line. Detaching works the same way. You don’t have to open the base, remember which extension you meant, and add the line from there.
It’s the same underlying line assignment whether you do it from the base’s editor or from the extension. Attach a handset from the extension and it shows on the base; add a line on the base and it shows on the extension. One relationship, editable from both ends.
Why this matters
Cordless phones are exactly the kind of asset that goes missing from a central view, because they’re easy to treat as an afterthought until one breaks. Bringing DECT into the same Phones view, with the same editor conventions and the same attach-from-either-side behaviour as desk phones, means the inventory you rely on for a customer is actually complete. When someone asks what’s deployed at a site, the answer includes the handsets.
Try It
DECT phone support is available now in Controvo. Open Controvo, go to the Phones view for any customer with DECT, and flip the toggle. Not in the pilot? Apply for early access.
For the full list of what shipped this month, see the Late August & September 2026 release notes.