Aeris eyes evolving telematics market

Machine-to-machine wireless network operator Aeris Communications Inc. reported recent enhancements to its data services to support asset tracking, automotive telematics and stolen vehicle recovery using CDMA and GSM networks nationwide-a move that puts the company in the same space as telematics veteran OnStar.
In fact, Aeris’ offerings are similar to OnStar’s-but better, says Aeris’ President and CEO Dick Gossen. Aeris has yet to announce any deals yet, but Gossen said the company is talking to most of the world’s auto manufacturers and expects to begin racking up contracts next year.
OnStar has vowed to limit its telematics services to General Motors Corp. vehicles after 2008, which could leave other carmakers shopping around for a new vendor capable of filling their telematics services void. Gossen said Aeris’ AerFrame network platform fits the bill. Aeris’ AerFrame serves more than 1 million M2M devices, according to Aeris, running over other carriers’ networks.
“Leveraging our centralized, proprietary switching infrastructure, fiber-backhauled directly from the more than 600 switching centers of our collective carrier partners, we have gone far beyond the [mobile virtual network operator] business model, which is based on simply repacking and re-branding conventional carrier services,” explained Gossen.
The bottom line for users, according to Gossen, is that Aeris’ network services are more reliable and robust as compared with OnStar’s services, which runs over Verizon Wireless nationwide CDMA network.
OnStar’s subscription-based communications, monitoring and tracking service has been standard equipment on GM vehicles for several years, and the company has said it will be standard on all new North American GM vehicles by 2007. OnStar’s Web site revealed that Acura and Isuzu Motors America Inc. are the only non-GM manufacturers offering OnStar, though Audi, Subaru of America Inc. and Volkswagen of America Inc. have offered OnStar-based telematics service in the past.
GM’s OnStar service consists of 24-hour GPS tracking technology along with voice communication services. OnStar has an audio interface whereby users can contact OnStar representatives with the push of a button. In addition, vehicle telemetry can be relayed to representatives in the case of emergencies, such as after an airbag has been activated.
Gossen contends that Aeris’ technology is more advanced and reliable than OnStar’s because Aeris offers broadband services via Internet Protocol sessions for streaming and messaging data along with SMSDirect, a low latency, high-reliability CDMA SMS service that’s optimized for M2M applications and Voice OnDemand, a CDMA service that establishes a real-time, in-band voice and data circuit-without human dialing-in response to emergency situations or as needed.
Although Aeris stands to command a large market share of the automotive sector’s networks services business, Gossen stressed that the company’s technology has many more potential applications, especially as video and data usage gains traction among enterprise and consumer users.
In September, Aeris, expanded its strategic agreement with U.S. Cellular Corp., spelling out that Aeris will use the regional wireless operator’s network to expand its footprint and to add CDMA2000 1x data, text messaging and real-time connectivity over CDMA and AMPS control channels for short-packet event reporting and wireless remote control, called MicroBurst, to its portfolio. To date, Aeris has not named carrier partners, though the company has touted is has agreements with more than 30 wireless carriers in North America to provide nationwide coverage in both CDMA and GSM technologies.
“This partnership allows Aeris to enhance the delivery of mission-critical M2M services across North America,” said Mark Chiarelli, the company’s senior vice president of networks. “Aeris’ North American M2M deployments in the automotive, fleet management, trucking and security industries will directly benefit from this expansion.”
And Gossen stressed that his company will keep enhancing its offerings for those traditional Aeris customers. “That’s where we grew up,” said Gossen.
This strategy of not putting all the company’s eggs into one basket, namely the automotive market, is likely a wise one. Consider the case of Wingcast, the joint venture forged between Ford Motor Co. and Qualcomm Inc. that sought to install in-vehicle wireless services in Ford, Nissan and Infiniti cars by model-year 2003.
Wingcast launched in August 2000 with an innovative business plan that it hoped would set it apart from GM’s OnStar system. The company’s architecture was to be primarily client-server based, meaning less equipment would be in the vehicle and more would be embedded in a wireless device, such as a laptop, phone or personal digital assistant.
But by May of 2002, Wingcast was no more. Apparently Ford and Qualcomm couldn’t agree on a business model that made sense. Ford said at the time that in-vehicle wireless systems should be launched by carriers rather than by carmakers.