Hemisphere GNSS will be showcasing its new Atlas GNSS global correction service at the INTERGEO 2015 Conference and Trade Fair Fair in Stuttgart, Germany, held Sept. 15-17. Hemisphere GNSS will exhibit at Booth E6.093.
The Atlas correction service offers innovative and accessible correction service options, providing performance in demanding applications and environments, Hemisphere said. Available through various subscription and bundle options, Atlas is a flexible correction service with correction data delivered via L-band satellites or over the Internet at accuracy levels ranging from meter-level to sub decimeter-level.
The Atlas platform offers endless possibilities through hardware, software, and branding integration into various products and customized solutions, the company said. Several new Hemisphere products with Atlas support targeted for specific applications will be on display at INTERGEO, including Hemisphere’s latest AtlasLink GNSS smart antenna. Other Atlas capable products, including R330, V320 and VS330 will also be showcased.
AtlasLink, the multi-GNSS, multi-frequency smart antenna, is preconfigured to receive corrections from the new Atlas platform. The bundled AtlasLink solution provides users worldwide with the easiest way to utilize Atlas corrections — either directly from AtlasLink, or on their existing receivers via innovative new technologies built into AtlasLink.
“AtlasLink is a game changer” declared Chuck Joseph, Hemisphere GNSS CEO and president. “On its own it is a fantastic smart antenna with industry-leading RTK, connectivity and management capabilities. Further, when you add in the ability to deliver Atlas GNSS corrections to equipment you already own, from any vendor, you have a real powerhouse that will allow you to get much more from your existing GNSS equipment.”
Live demonstrations of Atlas GNSS global correction service and AtlasLink GNSS smart antenna will be given daily. Contact Hemisphere GNSS to schedule a time or visit booth E6.093 during the show.
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.”
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) today released a report that finds more than 25 types of business operations have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly unmanned aircraft systems commercially in the National Airspace System (NAS). According to the report, aerial photography received the most exemptions followed by real estate and aerial surveying. The report also finds that exemptions have been approved in 49 states.
“These figures show that businesses across every industry sector have been waiting to use UAS for years and are excited to finally get this technology off the ground,” said Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI. “From inspecting bridges and power lines to filming movies and supporting emergency services, the applications of UAS are virtually limitless and enable researchers, public agencies and businesses to do things that were previously considered to be impossible.”
In May 2014, the FAA announced it would consider granting exemptions for certain low-risk commercial UAS applications under Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. Since then, the agency has received more than 2,700 requests and approved more than 1,400 petitions.
AUVSI analyzed the first 1,000 exemptions approved by the FAA. Specifically, the report finds:
The approved exemptions cover more than 25 types of business operations, with aerial photography receiving the most approvals with 512. Real estate followed with 350 exemptions and general aerial surveying with 301 exemptions.
Exemptions were approved for operators from 49 states. California received the most with 114, followed by Florida with 97 and Texas with 82.
California companies also manufactured the most platforms mentioned in the approvals, totaling 140. Florida followed with 19. In all, 22 states house manufacturers of platforms approved in the first 1,000 exemptions.
More than 90 percent of the first 1,000 exemptions were granted to small businesses.
Companies that received exemptions generate at least $500 billion to the U.S. economy annually and represent more than 600,000 jobs.
While the Section 333 process has continued to unlock the potential of UAS technology, AUVSI emphasized that regulating by exemption is no substitute for finalized rules.
“For the full potential of the UAS commercial market to be realized in the U.S., the FAA needs to finalize its small UAS rule as quickly as possible,” Wynne said. “Once this happens, we will have an established framework for UAS operations allowing anyone who follows the rule to fly. The positive effects of the regulation will be felt across the whole country.”
An economic impact study released by AUVSI in 2013 found the UAS industry will create more than 100,000 new jobs and more than $82 billion in economic impact within the first ten years following UAS integration.
The complete study, including state-by-state data, is available.
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.
AtlasLink, the multi-GNSS, multi-frequency smart antenna, is preconfigured to receive corrections from the new Atlas platform. The bundled AtlasLink solution provides users worldwide with the easiest way to utilize Atlas corrections — either directly from AtlasLink, or on their existing receivers via innovative new technologies built into AtlasLink.
