Mobile Communications Update
What the 2007 spectrum shift means for fleets.
JOHN BENDEL
TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Did you feel the regulatory earth shift this summer? In August, the Federal Communications Commission decreed that providers of analog cellular phone service must maintain their analog systems for only five more years. After 2007, providers can begin to shift their reserved analog spectrum over to digital services, if they wish.
In at least one case the change was anticipated. Qualcomm cited the uncertain future of analog cellular when it pulled the untethered version of TrailerTracs, its trailer-tracking product, from the market in September of 2001. That product had relied on analog cellular, which is the oldest cellular network and by far the most widely deployed.
Fleets who use cell phones for driver communication may rely on analog cellular even if they subscribe to a digital service. Many digital phones provide dual-mode communications, using digital networks where they're available but switching to analog when they're not. These phones are basically digital in the city and analog in the countryside.
The FCC decision doesn't mean overall cellular coverage will shrink. Most rural cellular providers make money on analog and will continue to serve their local markets as well as the dual-mode-phone truckers passing through.
The problem will begin in metropolitan areas where major cellular providers are anxious to drop analog so they can offer more digital services. For one thing, industry experts warn that the demise of metropolitan analog will decrease sales of dual-mode phones, forcing prices for those phones much higher.
But voice is only a small part of the picture. The FCC decision will have a far greater impact on fleets who rely on the analog network for data communications. Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), for example, is a data service built on top of the analog network. Providers such as Numerex use analog network control channels to move short messages.
According to telecommunications experts, these services will no longer be viable once metropolitan-area analog begins to degrade. Fleets who use these services will be forced onto the digital networks.
Five years can be an eternity where technology is concerned. But, as the Qualcomm decision demonstrates, the impact of this FCC decree might be felt much sooner. It's time for fleets to review their cellular services and take a particularly hard took at those that are analog-only.
By the way, Qualcomm still offers a TrailerTracs version that works with hooked, or tethered, trailers. Meanwhile, the company is working on a new untethered product that will be able to use various cellular modes, although it may not be commercially available for more than a year.
Hard Times For Tech
It's been a tough year for mobile communications providers.
Many mobilecom providers struggled in a serious economic downturn before Sept. 11, but in the immediate wake of the terrorist attacks the U.S. economy seemed to stop altogether. A sense of profound uncertainty caused fleets to suspend deployment of new systems or upgrades of old ones. The shock was too much for some providers.
In January of 2002, for example, Terion Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection. About the same time,
@Track was born during the '90s as HighwayMaster, which sought to challenge satellite communications provider Qualcomm. HighwayMaster offered less expensive analog cellular communications for both voice and data. But the company never turned a profit.
By early 2000, new management had streamlined the company, changed its name and introduced products that used the newer digital networks. But it was too late. By January the company's stock had fallen below $1 and the NASDAQ announced it would delist @Track.
@Track's answer was to find a savior of sorts in England. Minorplanet PLC bought a controlling interest in @Track, which sold off its trucking products -- including HighwayMaster — and changed its name to Minorplanet USA. Minorplanet USA serves metropolitan regional mobile workforce applications, but not long-haul trucking markets — at least not yet.
Terion found a different path. The company had already ceased the unique Mobile Messenger driver communications service it had officially launched in 1999 in order to concentrate on its trailer tracking product, FleetView. With that as its focus, the company's reorganization plan was approved by the court and Terion emerged from bankruptcy in September with new financing in hand.
If Sept. 11 helped bring about Terion's bankruptcy, it may also have had something to do with its rapid revival. Since that terrible event, many technology providers have shifted their focus from productivity to security. Few technologies pertain to trucking security more immediately than tracking solutions — now Terion's primary business.
Terion's FleetView does use the analog network, but the company says the FCC's decision was anticipated and upgrades will be available to customers before the analog network begins to degrade.
Old And New
Despite the economic turmoil of the last two years, at least one familiar mobile communications name has re-emerged from obscurity.
Orbcomm is the low-earth-orbit satellite system that began commercial operations late in 1998 combining near-universal satellite coverage with low communications cost — ideal for asset tracking. But customers didn't sign up fast enough and Orbcomm quickly sank under its massive debt load.
Still the satellite network itself never ceased functioning and a group of investors bought the company in 2001 at a fire-sale price. But little was heard from Orbcomm in the trucking realm until this March. That's when Volvo announced the launch of Volvo Link, the industry's first OEM mobile communications system.
Volvo Link is a factory option that includes GPS and a short-messaging system with an in-dash display available on VN and VHD models. Aftermarket installation is available on some existing models. Volvo Link is built to send short messages and GPS location information over the Orbcomm network.
Other companies have announced new services through Orbcomm. For example, startup Catch4 of Lakewood, Colo., is marketing MODUS, an integrated fleet management software suite designed for commercial fleets of five to 500 vehicles. MODUS, like Orbcomm itself, is primarily of interest to truckload and long-haul fleets.
Meanwhile, a number of companies have begun to aggressively market digital, ground-based communications systems to truck fleet markets, particularly in the LTL and regional markets. For example, Airbiquity of Bainbridge Island, Wash., offers an array of asset-tracking options as well as voice and data communications over digital networks.
Oh yes, remember the Mobile Messenger driver communication network shut down by Terion last year?
The system uses FM radio towers to transmit data from dispatch to a truck while messages from the truck travel on high-frequency waves that bounce from the ionosphere to a series of ground-based antennas.
The service has been sold to Global 2-Way of Marcos Island, Fla., which will incorporate the technologies into its T-Fleet system for vehicle location, driver communication and fleet management.
