DALLAS-Aeris Communications Inc. and Orbcomm Canada Inc. announced an agreement to integrate their respective MicroBurst and Orbcomm services for hybrid wireless data and messaging products and services in Canada.
The combined solution will combine MicroBurst’s coverage in the Rogers Cantel cellular network in Canada with the little low-earth-orbit satellite data system from Orbcomm. The dual system is expected to begin providing two-way communications for tracking and monitoring services by late this year.
Aeris MicroBurst uses the control channel of existing cellular systems to transmit low-cost short-packet-data applications, such as automated vehicle location, cargo tracking, and remote monitoring of security alarms and other devices. Combined with Orbcomm’s satellite system, these data and messaging applications can continue operating when the tracking, monitoring or positioning device is outside the range of the cellular network.
The agreement also calls for creating an “intelligent” radio device that can determine the appropriate network-control channel or satellite-for the given area. This hybrid device is expected to reduce prices as well as expand coverage.
Customer service and billing also will be handled in an integrated fashion by either Aeris or Orbcomm in Canada, depending on customer requirements.
Aeris has almost ubiquitous coverage in Canada, whereas it has about 60-percent coverage in the United States, following an agreement with United States Cellular Corp., according to Dick Gossen, Aeris president and chief executive officer. The strength of its Canadian operations led the company to roll out the integrated service there and hoping to extend the agreement to the United States when coverage here is more robust.
Orbcomm is still in the process of deploying its 36-satellite constellation. The company plans to have 28 satellites in orbit this year to begin global service and add the other eight next year to complement the service. Seven of its planned 24 terrestrial gateways are complete, covering three continents. All five continents will have completed gateways by the end of they year when the company has 12 completed, said Scott Webster, Orbcomm chairman and chief executive officer.
Webster said Orbcomm hopes to secure further internetworking agreements with other wireless data networks in the future. Internetworking with satellite and other networks is expected to boost the lagging wireless data market.
“I think we’re standing on the threshold of enormous opportunity,” he said, likening wireless data networks to that of the Internet in 1985.
The announcement was made at the CelluComm Expo ’98 conference in Dallas last week, hosted by Zsigo Wireless Data Consultants Inc. It caused a buzz at the show, as internetworking and hybrid solutions were the catch words of the week. The wireless data industry hopes such internetworking and hybrid solutions will solve two critical problems of the field-coverage and lack of applications.
There are many types of mobile data networks, but all have coverage gaps. As telemetry and monitoring applications are expected to be the big moneymakers for the industry, coverage gaps in remote places are unacceptable.
Also, application developers have been slow to address wireless data needs. By internetworking, hybrid solutions bring more integrity to the mobile data space.
Expo organizer Konstantin Zsigo, president of Zsigo Wireless, said the announcement was the biggest news coming out of the show. “It means you have two wireless networks, satellite and cellular, fused together so their services look alike, (with) combined bills and products,” he said. Equipment manufactured for Orbcomm will be fused with Aeris hardware. “This is industry precedent-setting.”
