Broadcom Corporation has announced a new GNSS chip for Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable devices that simplifies integration of GNSS into low-cost products. The advanced chip enables devices such as fitness bands to deliver pinpoint location while consuming minimal power and in some cases can eliminate the need for a separate microcontroller (MCU).
The Broadcom BCM47748 removes a bulk of the signal processing from the device MCU by calculating position, velocity and time (PVT) on-chip, delivering significant system power savings. The chip uses intelligent firmware to extend battery life while also maintaining accuracy in speed, distance and position for an enhanced user experience.
Broadcom At ION GNSS+: Broadcom’s Stephen Mole is presenting on the topic of achieving low power consumption in wearables at ION GNSS+ 2015, taking place Sept. 14-18 at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida. Stephen will present during the A5 session, Applications using Consumer GNSS, on Friday, Sept. 18, at 9:40 a.m. inRoom 23.
“Broadcom is extending its navigation leadership into the IoT ecosystem by helping customers deliver a premium location experience without compromising battery life or requiring a costly, power-hungry host processor,” said Prasan Pai, Broadcom senior director, Wireless Connectivity. “With more consumers demanding GNSS in a wider variety of applications, we see a tremendous opportunity to expand our reach into new devices with market-leading GNSS technology.”
By absorbing location computations on-chip, Broadcom not only reduces power consumption but can also dramatically lower costs for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by replacing the device MCU and reducing board space. Additionally, firmware inside the BCM47748 automatically adapts to user activity and context, whether biking, walking or running, to provide precise location results to the user, enabling performance that is not sacrificed for power savings.
Key features:
PVT computed on-chip
Integrated GNSS receiver with concurrent support for GPS and GLONASS, combined with accelerometer inputs to produce stable, accurate and low power speed and distance
Context engine and adaptive firmware to enable low power consumption for every activity and context without compromising accuracy
Ability to produce GNSS fixes with only 5mA current consumption in certain scenarios
MCU host interfaces include SPI, UART or I2C
Sensor interfaces include I2C master, SPI master, I2S, ADC and GPIO
Large on-chip memory for enhanced PVT accuracy and customer applications
Embedded processor with self-boot capability
Geofencing and lifelogging capabilities
70 ball WLBGA package with 0.4mm ball pitch
The Broadcom BCM47748 is currently sampling with customers. Evaluation kits and reference designs are also available.
Azuga’s Fleet Driver Rewards App Wins CTIA E-Tech Award
Ananth Rani founded Azuga in 2013.
When Ananth Rani began work in 2012 on the Fleet Driver Rewards app that has made connected vehicle provider Azuga a CTIA up-and-comer, he wasn’t sure he was making the right decision.
“Frankly, it was a bit of an experience to see if there was still room in the market for another vendor,” he said recently as he took time to sit-down at a coffee shop in Las Vegas’ Sands Expo Center amid CTIA Super Mobility 2015. “I thought, ‘What the hell am I getting myself into?’”
The gamble paid off for the Azuga and its dedicated co-founder. Azuga’s app took home second place in the Mobile Cloud division at the CTIA E-Tech Awards Thursday. The honors go to what CTIA describes as “the most innovative emerging mobile services, solutions and technology from areas such as the cloud, network equipment, M2M and the Internet of Things.”
What makes Azuga’s app innovative says Rani, is that it appeals to a unique user: The fleet driver.
Not just managers. Not just owners. The drivers themselves.
“Azuga is all about social telematics,” he says. “It comes from the heart. I tell fleet managers, ‘Do you want to be remembered as a gotcha guy or an attaboy?’”
A Silicon Valley veteran, Rani utilized a principal more likely to be seen in apps marketed to consumers: gamification. Fleet drivers earn points based on things like hard-braking, acceleration, sustained high speeds and driving in adverse weather conditions, among other metrics determined by a Ph.D. in statistics that Azuga has on staff.
“The expectation was that a driver will naturally move toward a safer fleet by competing with the rest of the drivers, and that as the risk goes down the miles per gallon goes up,” Rani said, “and that’s your ROI.”
The reward for winning is no simple badge: Drivers’ profiles are pulled from LinkedIn and their rankings are visible among the “Azuga Awesome Drivers” group on the social network. Rani says Azuga is “not J.D. Power” but aspires to have the same reputation for determining safe drivers.
Azuga Fleet Driver Rewards can gift a reward as a donation to groups like World of Children.
There’s also cash on the line. The company gives out quarterly prizes to the Top 10 drivers and Top 10 fleet managers of the 50,000 nationwide users, and the 1,000+ corporate customers can then also choose to award their drivers based on their own goals through an electronic gift card program that is tied to 14 national brands, including Amazon, Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Burger King. The driver sees the amount awarded and then has the choice of gift cards. Azuga has also recently added three charities to which the drivers can pass the reward as a donation.
Safety and savings aside, employee retention is an additional
“This is a blue collar world where the employee takes the truck home at night. Feeling engaged is the key to employee retention in a world where they may never see the boss and where they only see their manager for a meeting every few weeks.”
Azuga’s OBD-II connector is manufactured by parent company Danlaw Inc.
Azuga pairs with hardware manufactured by its parent company, Michigan-based Danlaw Inc. Rani sees the relationship as one that benefits Azuga with the “automotive grade DNA” and calls it “Silicon Valley meets Detroit.”
Azuga Fleet costs 69 cents per day per vehicle, and customers are companies of varying sizes with Aaron’s, the rental furniture and home appliances chain, using it for 3,000 trucks and 6,000 drivers on the large end and single-driver landscape companies at the small end.
Growth plans for the app including functions to help drivers find parking, locate a parked truck and easily message clients that they are on their way. The app is also being reviewed by state governments as a tool to determine whose cars need to be emissions-tested and to track hours required for state graduated driver licensing.
It’s currently being tested by the Oregon Department of Transportation as a way to assign a road usage charge that funds highway repairs. The topic is politically divisive, with opponents saying replacing the gas tax with a per-mile fee is inequitable and subsidizes gas-guzzlers and advocates saying it will lead to safer roads and is an easier, faster alternative to tolls. The din doesn’t concern Rani. He says the intent is the same that inspired the fleet management app.
LAS VEGAS — About 30,000 attendees sweltered in Las Vegas for CTIA’s Super Mobility show this past week. Attendance was flat from last year, but the exhibit floor and meeting rooms bustled. The energy of the show focused on M2M and Internet of Things (IoT). In past years, the connected vehicle was a highlight, but not so this year. Wearable technology was scant. Those looking for the big product introductions of the past were disappointed. However, CTIA’s keynote speakers added focus and vision into the show, reminding us of the drive and vigor that built the industry.
In the past, the network operators (we once called them carriers) and device manufacturers owned the CTIA show, where they made their biggest product reveals. This year, AT&T had a flurry of announcements, including a partnership with car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover North America. AT&T will supply connectivity to the cars for features such as Wi-Fi hotspots, connected navigation and a suite of apps. Customers will be able to share wireless data between phones, tablets and vehicles on its Mobile Share Value plan for an additional 10 dollars per month access fee. AT&T previously signed agreements with Audi, BMW, GM, Ford, Tesla, Nissan, Volvo and Subaru.
AT&T and Telogis announced a collaboration to offer solutions for companies with mobile workforces, a combination of AT&T’s network and Telogis’ telematics, compliance and navigation fleet solutions. AT&T was showing off ZTE Mobley, AT&T’s first plug-in vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot, which has just appeared in stores. Smaller announcements from AT&T included the formation of a dedicated smart city organization and a personal security app that provides live, OnStar-type professional monitoring (video and audio).
Verizon unveiled Go90, a streaming-video, social media service that works across carriers. Go90 is a free, ad-based service accessed only on a mobile phone and focused on short clips, viral videos and a social element, with crowdsourced recommendations and the ability to join groups. Go90 is targeted at Millennials, people younger than 30 years old. Although this seems like a minor announcement, obtaining the loyalty of Millennials and Generation Z (those still in their teens) is critical. With two-thirds of Millennials considering smartphones as their most important device for video, the strategy behind Go90 makes sense.
New Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure is never boring and used his time at the podium to continue trash- talking the competition. With cocky confidence, he pronounced that under his leadership, Sprint will enjoy “one of the biggest turnarounds in telecom history.” In July, Claure used Twitter to declare T-Mobile’s aggressive “uncarrrier” promotion to be “bullshit and a fake show.” He continued his rant at CTIA. “We spent the first year cutting AT&T or Verizon’s bills in half, which was fun. We’ve moved on today to offering all the DirecTV customers the choice to not be stuck with AT&T.”
One of the most pressing industry issues is spectrum. With wireless data forecast to grow ten-fold by the end of 2020, the industry is concerned that the 2016 spectrum auction will not be sufficient. Keynotes appealed for more spectrum to enable the U.S. to lead in 5G, just as it led in 4G. U.S. company-run operating systems are currently on nine out of ten smartphones, worldwide. FCC Chief Tom Wheeler was at CTIA to give assurances that the spectrum auction slated for March 2016 will be successful and occur as scheduled. He countered CTIA’s CEO Meredith Baker’s assertion that the FCC has no added plans beyond this auction for freeing up spectrum.
Freetel mobile products of Japan was one of several international companies participating in CTIA this year.
Location Players, M2M, IoT
TeleCommunication Systems (TCS), a stalwart of location-based services, beefed up its indoor location capabilities with the purchase of Loctronix. The platform, Sensorvision, aggregates and integrates location-positioning technologies, like Bluetooth, beacons and Wi-Fi, as well as content, such as mapping. Sensorvision is currently in beta testing and is aimed at wireless operators. With more stringent rules for 911, including indoor location requirements, TCS is positioned for both public safety and commercial needs. What’s next? In five years, Michael Mathews of TCS predicts, “We’ll be talking about the huge amount of information available from the road and the great impact on apps, including vehicles that are informing other cars of their actions, such as when they initiate traction control or start windshield wipers.”
u-blox, the maker of wireless and positioning modules and chips, announced a portfolio of new LTE low data rate cellular modules for IoT and M2M applications in the industrial and automotive markets. The portfolio consists of multi mode, multi carrier and of LTE only modules specific for large North American carriers. u-blox expects LTE Cat. 1 technology to become the future norm for M2M applications. And when asked about long-term success, Sven Etzold of u-box says, “The challenge for our industry is picking the right partners and being part of successful consortia. We need to partner with the right network operators and play with sensors’ companies.”
Janice visits with Chuck Moseley (center) and Don Wigglesworth (right) of Inmarsat.
Inmarsat unveiled its new machine-to-machine (M2M) and its IoT strategy, the “Internet of Everywhere.” The company is increasing use of VARs and OEMs to enable solutions that will provide more visibility and control of mobile assets throughout the world. “We are empowering existing and prospective VAR partners to offer unparalleled worldwide connectivity to their M2M and IoT customers through a single network and a single SIM,” said David Wigglesworth of Inmarsat. The company’s dedicated M2M services are IsatData Pro, a low-data-rate messaging service, and BGAN M2M, a two-way IP data service for monitoring and control of assets that require higher bandwidth capabilities.
Geotab, with one of the exhibit floor’s most crowded booths, showcased the development platform of a small form-factor GPS tracking device. The Geotab GO7 device plugs directly into a vehicle’s OBDII port. Developers create applications that are available on the Geotab Marketplace. The booth was crammed with developers who offer M2M and IoT solutions.
Geotab’s booth was crowded with developers interested in the Geotab Marketplace for M2M and IoT solutions.
Microsoft’s Start-Up Alley contained interesting ventures from the Microsoft Accelerator. One young company, Parknav, offered an app for finding parking spaces based on predictive modeling, and not sensors. Users are guided to street blocks with the highest probability of available parking spaces. The app uses a number of sources, including number of parking spaces, traffic flow and undisclosed data. Parknav enables searches for free, paid and permit parking in 30 cities in Germany and a few cities in the U.S.
On a charitable note, Jimmy Whales of Wikipedia fame was at CTIA to promote his phone business, a Sprint-based MVNO cellular service. Like Wikipedia, The People’s Operator (TPO) is not a profit driven enterprise. Ten percent of a subscriber’s monthly bill goes to a charity of her choosing, and 25 percent of the company’s profits are donated to non-profits. In talking about Wikipedia, Whales cited China’s current ban of the website. Wikipedia has recently made changes to its website that make it impossible for censors to ban specific Wikipedia pages, although the entire site can be blocked, as it currently is in China.
I have parting advice for the organizers of CTIA. This year’s show was disrupted by competing events that included the iPhone 6 announcement in Cupertino. Shame on Apple, who is a member of the CTIA board. Also, CTIA had organized a virtual co-conferencing with Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA), one of the largest trade shows for consumer electronics and home appliances. The IFA event was held in Berlin the prior week and stole attention from CTIA. It isn’t all about location. Timing matters.
Reasons Cited Include Privacy, Lack of Retail Support
Kevin Dennehy
Google Here, a proposed beacon-based location service operating within Google Maps, was reportedly cancelled due to a concern by Alphabet CEO Larry Page’s that it would be too invasive by the users of his mapping service. When the location industry has such a dominant player pull out of a nascent, and potentially lucrative, proximity service, does it mean that consumers will now have to wait for a full-scale rollout? Google will remain a major player with its Google Maps app, but where does it go from there?
Citing privacy issues and lack of retail partners for support, Google scraped its Google Here location service that would have used the company’s Maps technology to send notifications to users when they entered a specific location.
In a recent Fortune article, Alphabet CEO Larry Page said the company killed the project because it was too invasive to consumers, and the company was uncertain whether retail partners could have helped to roll out the service. Besides being in conflict with an existing location Here name (such as the former Nokia, and now German consortium, mapping service), the service included partnerships with retailers — and would have been available to more than 350 million Android users earlier this year.
Google makes money off of advertising through its Maps app, but the Fortune article said that the proposed Here location service would have made it even more valuable to advertisers.
So what does the location industry make of one of the largest players not rolling out a location service? To at least one analyst, it’s a “so what” report considering Google in July rolled out a new agnostic beacon service called Eddystone. “Somewhat curiously, the company appears to be moving forward with location-based advertising under the guise of the Eddystone project, so beacons and their use in location-based advertising seem still of interest — just not beacons combined with messaging that might make Google Maps an uncontrollable nag about shopping opportunities,” said Mike Dobson, Telemapics president.
Eddystone, a new format for Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, works with Google’s Android operating system along with Apple’s iOS and other platforms that connect through BLE.
Overall, Dobson believes that Google is approaching middle-age in terms of corporate development. “It is both developing a conscience about how its services really operate, as well as imposing economic constraints limiting how much the company is willing to spend to determine whether a potential market might be a big hit,” he said. “More specifically, it is my opinion that Google is slowly reining in the spending on new innovations for Google Maps, as well as the expenses associated with supporting the lakes in the data reservoir associated with their mapping product. Google may have finally realized that maintaining spatial data is expensive and a cost that is never going to decrease.”
Dobson also said that the Google Here program was going to be an expensive proposition. “My understanding of the Google Here program was that Google would provide the beacons and infrastructure and control delivery of the service through Google Maps. That’s a lot of beacons and associated support — in other words, more money,” he said. “Conversely, Eddystone appears to offer a standardized, industry-supported approach that is beneficial for Google and companies interested in testing the concept.”
Dobson said the name “Here” could have caused problems for Google. “Two other issues crossed my mind when I heard the news of the cancellation. First, who at Google forgot trademark law and thought they could combine the name of the well-known mapping company Here with Google?” he said. “Second, if I owned an application as successful as Google Maps is on mobile phones, I sure would not want to push my users to consider switching to a less-invasive mapping app. You know, that Larry Page guy sure seems to know his Alphabet.”
Big Competitors Getting into Beacons, with Huge Market Expected
Recent Allied Business Intelligence reports indicate that BLE beacon shipments will exceed 400 million units by 2020. While optimistic, and only five years away, ABI said that pure beacon shipment revenues will break $1 billion this year.
Google’s July entry into the location-beacon space is significant, if not surprising, to heat up the location market. However, competition is fierce as Apple, Facebook and Twitter now have dedicated BLE resources.
The location-beacon market is heating up as Gimbal, the Qualcomm spin-off company, installed approximately 1,300 BLE beacons in areas at South by Southwest. Gimbal said it was making its technology available to enable any BLE device to act as a dedicated location beacon.
Google plans to improve its own products and services through the Eddystone beacon technology, according to a company blog. Earlier this year, the company launched beacon-based transit notifications in Portland that enable users to get faster access to schedules for specific locations.
With rise in commercial location-based beacon technology comes a cross-over movement in public safety markets. TeleCommunication Systems, which bought Loctronix in July, is developing the indoor public safety and emergency market, along with Longmont, Colo.-based Intrado.
As detailed in last month’s Wireless LBS Insider column, beacons and Wi-Fi seem to be the lead technologies in use for emergency indoor location. Intrado installed 65 Apple iBeacons at the Washington Convention Center to showcase its developing indoor positioning technology at the APCO trade show.
It’s not all about beacons in this proximity/contextual location market. The analytical data derived from the beacon information will grow into a huge market. As we reported this summer, a new location analytics product is hitting the market in a more and more crowded indoor-positioning field.
Such companies as Cloud4Wi, with its Fogsense product, is tailored to retail outlets, coffee shops, restaurant chains and shopping malls with presence analytics and location-based services.
The device, which contains Broadcom’s WICED chip, features BLE technology in the new version in (the fourth quarter), said Elena Briola, Cloud4Wi’s chief marketing officer. The new BLE version will enable Apple iBeacon and location-aware mobile applications, the company said.
Exhibiting at CTIA Super Mobility 2015, Vanja Maric, director of sales and marketing for Rockville, Maryland-based antenna-maker Maxtena, pointed out the challenge that exists for antenna makers in an uncertain drone market: forecasting what will happen next and planning for that future.
“The problem with the drone space its so volatile and so fragmented, and it’s very, very hard to predict,” Maric said. “Speaking to industry leaders in the UAV market, they don’t even know what it’s going to be in three years, and it’s very hard to put all your cards in that.”
That fragmentation is largely a dichotomy between the needs of the professional-grade market and the recreational drone pilots, Maric said. Maxtena is currently the antenna provider for several large UAV manufacturers, although confidentiality prevents them from being named.
“It all comes down to the necessity of precision, and different industries have different needs. UAVs, for example, some use very simple GPS patch antennas, simple receivers and precise location is not as important,” he said. “Then you have guys in the professional space where it is a necessity.”
That necessity right now is in the survey market, particularly RTK solutions for construction and mining operations in emerging countries. The company has seen an uptick in customers from Asia looking for antennas for Beidou. More specifically, Maric said handhelds for lone worker tracking in open pit mining in China has had “fantastic” growth. The M1227 antenna released earlier this year accomplishes this goal.
Maxtena GPS antennas at CTIA 2015
“It’s not just hardware; they have a lot of costs—software, mapping— in on all that, and if that package is right, you have something special. However, don’t forget: The antenna is the link between you and the satellite. That antenna has to be right; that’s what most companies forget,” Maric said. “You can have the best receivers and software in the world, but if you can’t make the link you can’t do it.”
Carrier-independent LTE modules, the autonomous vehicle and delivery drones all factor into future plans for the Swiss wireless company
Nick Papadopoulos
What’s new from u-blox?
There’s a ton of new things. One is that we are now expanding our portfolio into short-range radio, meaning we have now products that are Bluetooth- and Wi-Fi-capable, which is useful especially in the automotive industries.
And on another note, on the cellular side which we have been shipping since 2010, we have now introduced one a high-speed LTE module that is carrier independent in the United States so it can do both AT&T and Verizon at the same time so customers have the option as part of their logistics chain to build their product and not have to worry if this is an AT&T module now or a Verizon module. It simplifies logistics, simplifies the entire manufacturing chain and reduces cost.
What are some use cases for the carrier-independent module?
One of our customers builds devices—whether for alarm panels, tracking devices, telematics devices—where at the time of manufacture in the past they would actually have to determine for which carrier this particular device is going to made. So imagine the warehouse where they have to have one shelf for AT&T devices and another shelf for Verizon devices. It duplicates the effort. It costs money to have this kind of inventory, and you don’t know when you manufacture how many AT&T devices am I going to sell how many Verizon devices am I going to sell. That goes away. The same goes with tablets.
This is for the automotive market as well?
Imagine a carmaker who actually has a telematics control unit and they have an agreement say with one of the carriers—I’m not saying which—and two years down the road they have 8 million vehicles with telematics unit and then after two years decides the rates I’m getting with Carrier A, I could get better rates from Carrier B, so going forward they now sell vehicles car with telematics units with Carrier B. But everything they’ve sold in the past two years is still relying on Carrier A and, with the data buckets they have to pay still with that carrier, they don’t have any cost advantage there only moving forward. Now with our modem they can actually switch the entire base to Carrier B and save on the cost.
Can you tell us with whom you are working on this?
We are working with several customers on this and have a designed product, but I cannot tell you at this point until they allow us to—we’re working with them so it’s probably going to be the beginning of next year (before an announcement is made).
What do you think it is that is giving your automotive innovations longevity?
One of the things we have been working on is the development of our own LTE chipset and that has advantages–for one cost advantages—because LTE-only technology does not compete with our partners and so far that actually allows us to develop new products, new modules based on our own LTE chipset and expands our portfolio especially in North America where we hope in the next few years LTE will be so prevalent you won’t need any 2G or 3G, so that’s one of the things.
We have also announced we are working very closely on the positioning side with several carmakers toward technology for autonomous vehicles. We’ve revolutionized positioning technology to the point you can identify which altitude you’re at in a parking garage. That is expanding to allow additional accuracy in very adverse environments for preparation of so called ADAS systems toward autonomous vehicles.
What can we expect from this technology in the next few years?
You have already today cars that park themselves. You have already today cars that are autonomous, but there are still passengers there just to monitor. A lot of the technology that already there is actually based on our dead reckoning technology. We are expanding around that in order to eventually truly allow autonomous vehicles to the point where those vehicles can actually park themselves in a valet scenario.
Imagine driving up to a hotel and telling your car to go park yourself and it does it. It knows where to go and it eventually finds a spot and it parks itself without endangering anyone, and it can do that due to our technology, even underground. I do see in the next three-to-four years several carmakers launching vehicles that can drive autonomously on the highway. And they will need our technology for it.
The IRIS+ drone utilizes the u-blox GPS module.
What about usage in UAVs?
We are the leader in positioning technology for drones. We’re developing the technology to further improve position accuracy for delivery drones. So not just for recreational use but truly for professional utilization either for delivery, package delivery, agricultural delivery, pesticide/herbicide delivery. You need very, very accurate positioning technology.
Where do you see the UAV industry going?
I see consolidation eventually but at the same time, I see more and more proliferation of companies developing new types of drones.
What’s the key to u-blox’s success?
We have been phenomenally lucky that we have such good customers, who are not only loyal to us, but they spread the word and they bring more customers. I am very thankful and grateful to our customers and colleagues.
With market share second only to Ericsson, TeleCommunication Systems Inc. (TCS) is investing in location-based services (LBS), particularly those used for indoor location.
One key investment was the July acquisition of Loctronix, a small Seattle-based provider of positioning systems for GNSS-challenged environments.
TCS senior vice president and commercial software group president Jay Whitehurst spoke exclusively to GPS World at CTIA Super Mobility 2015 in Las Vegas this week about the acquisition.
“We’ve been building out the (indoor location) technology, and we bought the assets of Loctronix and hired their CEO (Michael B. Mathews),” Whitehurst said. “They had a developed library and were at proof-of-concept almost ready to go to market and needed a vehicle to get it out there. We have 50 percent market share in E911, and in LBS we have 26 percent market share, relative to Ericsson’s 28 percent.”
Loctronix’s Mobile Explorer Platform is designed for mobile devices, and delivers high-accuracy positioning booth indoors and out.
The acquisition comes as TCS completes E911 interoperability testing with four public-safety equipment vendors, ahead of impending government regulation of E911 and with increasing public awareness about the need for emergency services that work with modern technology.
Beyond public safety and security, Whitehurst says there are “unlimited applications” for the company’s indoor location tools in the commercial sector.
From Mathews’ perspective, he made “the right choice” in selling his company. Mathews is now vice president of location technology at TCS.
“I found it was easy to be an evangelist, but scaling that into a commercial solution you could sell and make money on are two very different things. It’s easy to have vision, but you’ve got to have infrastructure and the scale of a company behind you to get it to happen,” he said, standing next to Whitehurst in the TCS booth. “We were able to fit into their infrastructure, and they’ve got a lot of tools we couldn’t wait to get our hands on.”
TCS plans to announce new geolocation tools based on the Loctronix assets in the fourth quarter. Without going into detail, Mathews described what’s coming as a “holistic solution” — then joked with Whitehurst that in his new role as a “tech guy” instead of CEO, “It’s not my problem.”
“The story we’re going to tell the next few months is pretty awesome,” Mathews said. “When we say location everywhere we mean location everywhere.”
Whitehurst presents VirtuMedix, a telemedicine platform using TCS’s LBS solutions
“In the healthcare market vertical, clinicians are licensed to practice in a state. So knowing when somebody is accessing a healthcare provider by a mobile device, we have to determine if they are in the state the clinician is licensed to practice. It’s an important usage of (location-based services).”
PodsystemM2M, which specializes in multi-network data solutions for the M2M and Internet of Things (IoT) industries, announced a new partnership program for providers of M2M and IoT hardware and software that aims to fast track solutions to market by providing tried and tested components for companies looking to develop end-to-end solutions. The announcement was made at CTIA Super Mobility 2015, held in Las Vegas Sept. 8-11.
The program has the support of software solutions providers Gurtam, Betaar3 and Gosafe, who provide hardware for fleet management solutions. The aim is to create a community in each sector enabling developers to choose the best components for their product and get advice from M2M experts. The first sector covered is GPS tracking for fleet management and logistics.
Gurtam provides a powerful fleet intelligence software platform called Wialon, which allows GPS tracking solution companies to deliver a feature-rich and cost-effective service to end-user fleets globally. The platform is used by more than 650 solution providers on five continents.
Betaar3 is a global provider of mobile workforce solutions for service-based businesses of all sizes delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS).
Gosafe develops and distributes GPS fleet management products including hardware and software solutions that utilize existing wireless network infrastructures to provide web-based vertical applications to commercial customers as well as consumers. Gosafe’s products are sold in more than 100 countries.
“We are excited to partner with Podsystem and be in a position to recommend them as a connectivity provider with an excellent track record for reliable service and outstanding customer experience,” Gurtam Managing Director Sergei Leuchanka said in a press release. “Choices for connectivity are vast, but not many providers can boast the same level of staff dedication and technical capabilities that many of our customers in North America have come to expect from Podsystem.”
AT&T and Telogis, a SaaS-based connected vehicle technology provider, have announced a collaboration to offer solutions for companies with mobile workforces. Connecting vehicles of all sizes from small trucks to 18-wheelers and heavy equipment, the combination of AT&T’s global network and Telogis’ telematics, compliance, and mobile and navigation software creates full-fleet solutions for businesses around the world.
The announcement was made at CTIA Super Mobility, being held this week in Las Vegas.
Telogis works with some of the world’s largest mobile companies to provide the critical data they need for more informed decisions relating to operational efficiency, reducing costs and improving safety. Telogis is the exclusive connected commercial vehicle technology provider for Ford Motor Company, powering its factory-installed Ford Telematics solution. Telogis also works with General Motors, Hino, Volvo, Mack, Manitowoc Cranes and Isuzu to build its solutions into vehicles and equipment in the factory.
Working with AT&T, Telogis is implementing a network solution to deliver a reliable, highly secure stream of data nearly anywhere in the world. The AT&T service management platform allows Telogis to easily manage the data, devices and services that support its customers. AT&T also is working with Telogis to help with over the air updates and provide unique split billing capabilities.
“We’re offering Telogis a complete wireless network that enables two-way, real-time data communication between the vehicle and office,” said Chris Penrose, senior vice president, AT&T Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions. “We look forward to driving new innovative services together in the fleet marketplace and offering true global solutions to our mutual customers.”
“Telogis provides mission-critical intelligence for some of the world’s largest mobile businesses and automotive manufacturers, and our customers demand the quality and reliability that only a provider like AT&T can deliver,” said David Cozzens, CEO, Telogis. “As we continue to capitalize on a rapidly growing, multi-billion dollar global market for connected vehicle and equipment technologies, AT&T provides the scalable infrastructure and backbone Telogis requires.”
It wasn’t enough for AT&T Mobility President & CEO Glenn Lurie to make just one major announcement during his keynote address at CTIA Super Mobility 2015 Thursday.
He had to make several.
Most significantly, AT&T used the stage in front of a packed crowd, including their biggest competitors, to introduce new personal security, fleet tracking and connected car solutions.
On the personal security front, Lurie announced the Digital Life Personal Security app, essentially a panic button for your smartphone that’s fully monitored and connected to emergency services much like home security and automation components of the Digital Life portfolio. The innovation came from customer feedback that “Digital Life is terrific, but you can’t take it with you.”
Lurie said this technology was personal to him as the father of a 19-year-old daughter.
“Imagine the opportunity of a 24/7 monitoring facility taking care of her, the ability for her to hit a button and instantly know where she is and instantly have the police come,” he said. “We’re going to offer to digital life customers and offer to anybody who wants to add this to their smartphone.”
AT&T also announced major collaborations with connected vehicle technology provider Telogis and automaker Jaguar Land Rover North America. Telogis’ software-as-a-service-based telematics software will allow AT&T to offer full-fleet solutions for business. Telogis is already the commercial vehicle telematics provider used by Ford, General Motors, Volvo, Mack and Isuzu. Meanwhile The AT&T service management platform allows Telogis to “manage the data, devices and services that support its customers,” according to a press release on the AT&T and Telogis announcement.
AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie thanks CTIA CEO Meredith Atwell-Baker for the association’s support.
New Jaguar and Land Rover models will be equipped with AT&T Wi-Fi and infotainment systems.
New Range Rover models already feature AT&T connectivity.
With Jaguar and Land Rover, AT&T connectivity will power the infotainment features, including Wi-Fi hotspot, navigation and apps. AT&T had already begun equipping Range Rover models with the technology earlier this month; this announcement is an expansion of that to other Jaguar and Land Rover models, which will come later this year. AT&T customers will be able to share one data plan for their smartphone and car with a Mobile Share Value plan, which is $10 per month.
“We view the connected car as the next great device in your life,” said Lurie, who also gave a keynote at last year’s CTIA conference. “About half of the cars this year will be connected by AT&T.”
TeleCommunication Systems Inc. (TCS) announced at CTIA today that by year’s end the company will offer Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) for all of its technology solutions for location-based services (LBS) and messaging. Integrating NFV enables TCS customers, including global wireless operators and enterprises, to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into communication services that will cost-effectively run on common off-the-shelf, non-proprietary hardware platforms.
The new architecture is expected to enable customers to build specific and individualized networks that address their changing needs, and reduce time to market for new functionality and features. The solution can be deployed using a cloud-based, low-cost data center environment for both messaging and location solutions.
“By migrating all of our best-in-class solutions to NFV, we will be able to make our software available at any time and on non-proprietary platforms, reducing costs and complexity. This flexibility and agility will reduce customer costs, both CapEx and OpEx,” TCS Commercial Software Group President Jay Whitehurst said in a statement. “Virtualizing our location-based and messaging platforms is a critical expansion vector for TCS as we can now serve a larger set of customers in a more cost-effective manner.”
In a press release, TCS quoted a study by ABI Research saying it is the global leader in precise LBS infrastructure. TCS offers time-tested, end-to-end, LBS solutions that include applications, infrastructure, mapping, and content, processing more than 7 billion LBS transactions monthly.
TCS, based in Annapolis, Md., is a world leader in secure and highly reliable wireless communications. for E911, commercial LBS, cybersecurity, defense and more.
R&S TS8991 Wireless Performance Test Chamber.(PRNewsFoto/Rohde & Schwarz)
PCTEST Engineering Laboratory, an accredited testing laboratory for wireless testing and certification, has expanded its over-the-air (OTA) conformance testing capabilities with the purchase of a CTIA-compliant R&S TS8991 Wireless Performance Test Chamber (WPTC) from Rohde & Schwarz.
The R&S TS8991 OTA Test System is configured with hardware and software extensions for legacy and LTE A-GPS, a R&S ZND vector network analyzer for passive antenna measurements and faster system calibrations, and a second antenna boom with additional R&S NRP power sensors for faster total radiated power (TRP) measurements. The entire system is controlled via R&S AMS32 wireless performance software.
As the number of technologies and the variety of mobile devices continue to increase, the ability to verify a device’s radiated performance is becoming more important to ensure end-user quality of experience. For 4G/LTE, there are major developments involving the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communication, LTE at 5GHz (LTE-U), assisted global navigation satellite system (A-GNSS), and carrier aggregation, which are driving the need for improved as well as additional OTA tests required for both carrier acceptance and industry conformance test plans.
“As wireless devices become more specialized and continue to push the boundaries of transmission efficiency, the ability to fully characterize a device in an over-the-air environment is becoming more critical,” said Randy Ortanez, president of PCTEST Lab. “Every day we are seeing the acceptance bar being raised and more test cases defined from operators and standard bodies such as CTIA and 3GPP. To meet these growing demands, we are very pleased to be working with our partner Rohde & Schwarz who is able to deliver and support a complete turn-key solution for our OTA testing needs.”
PCTEST is exhibiting in the Test Pavilion of Hall C, Booth 5159, at the CTIA Super Mobility trade show, taking place this week at the Sands EXPO in Las Vegas. Rohde & Schwarz is exhibiting in Booth 3249.
Broadcom Corporation has announced a new GNSS chip for Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable devices that simplifies integration of GNSS into low-cost products. The advanced chip enables devices such as fitness bands to deliver pinpoint location while consuming minimal power and in some cases can eliminate the need for a separate microcontroller (MCU).
