The Name Game on Steroids
Where trucking is concerned, the Aether story actually began in 1989 when AT&T was building out its analog cellular phone system and wanted to compete on the ground with Qualcomm's promising satellite business. The company it formed then introduced something called the HighwayMaster system in 1993.
In 1995, HighwayMaster went public but never posted a profit. In 2000, the company shed its top executives, scaled back spending, introduced digital products and changed its name to @Track Communications. But losses continued until 2001, when Minorplanet, a British telematics company, bought @Track. In 2002 @Track sold off HighwayMaster and other trucking products to Aether Systems, then changed its name to Minorplanet USA.
Aether bought HighwayMaster hoping to wean remaining users over to its MobileMax product. MobileMax has a name-filled history of its own.
About the time HighwayMaster was getting started, a company called American Mobile Satellite introduced MobileMax to compete with Qualcomm. MobileMax combined satellite and cellular coverage, automatically switching to the cheapest option available. In 2000, American Mobile Satellite changed its name to Motient and sold MobileMax and other products to Aether.
To complete the saga, we must return to Minorplanet USA. Earlier this year, Minorplanet USA filed for Chapter 11 protection leading to another name change. In July the company formerly named HighwayMaster, @Track and Minorplanet became Portable Dynamics, which believe it or not, still provides analog network coverage by contract for those Aether customers who use HighwayMaster - and according to Aether, there are still a few.
Despite all the name changes, it's interesting to note that service continuity was never broken for HighwayMaster, MobileMax or any other product under the Aether banner.
Now, of course, Platinum Equity has dropped the Aether name and will market under the new name, GeoLogic Solutions. If that name sounds familiar, that's because GeoLogic was the name Aether gave to the new trailer tracking system it introduced in January 2003.
