By Susan Trott
Asset management, aviation connectivity and maritime communications are three "remote applications" outside the mainstream satellite markets of voice, business data and video. To the companies that offer these services, these remote applications represent viable sources of profit. For other satellite service providers, these applications prove the value of "thinking outside the box" when seeking new markets to conquer.
Ground-Based Asset Management
According to Truckinfo.net, there are roughly 1.9 million tractor trailers in the United States, and more than 360,000 trucking firms. These firms need to know where their trucks are at all times because late, lost or stolen tractor trailers can cost companies millions in business losses. In addition, homeland security officials need to know where trucks are due to the threat of terrorist attacks. For example in 2002, a Mexican freight trailer carrying 96 barrels of sodium cyanide was hijacked at gunpoint near Mexico City. Police eventually recovered the abandoned truck and 90 of the barrels. Six are still missing.
The trucking industry, as well as others, has a "need to know" that is spurring the growth of wireless asset tracking. "For instance, Qualcomm alone has equipped more than 300,000 vehicles with its OmniTracs two-way satellite transponders," says Ahmad Ghais, president of the Mobile Satellite Users Association. OmniTracs-equipped trucks have narrowband satellite transmitters that record the trucks' positions using GPS receivers. This data is then sent back to the trucks' fleet management offices via satellite.
AeroAstro, a CA-based manufacturer of small satellites, developed a similar narrowband system that uses Globalstar's low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites. For $99 per unit (plus airtime costs), North American truckers can install palm-sized Sensor Enabled Notification System (SENS) transmitters in their vehicles. The SENS monitors each truck's position, and then sends the data back periodically over the Globalstar satellite phone network.
The actual data included in these transmissions is minimal. This is why narrowband satellite services such as Globalstar are more than adequate for asset tracking. "Connectivity doesn't have to be fast to be effective," says Ghais. "Many of our members--shipping companies, aerospace companies and even the U.S. Coast Guard--are quite happy with Inmarsat 64 kbs service. Speed is nice, but connectivity at an affordable price is what they value most."
Tachyon is another satellite services company targeting the asset management sector. In contrast to mobile satellite narrowband applications such as OmniTracs and SENS, Tachyon's T-Force is aimed at fixed asset management clients who need broadband. T-Force is a proprietary form of data translation and transmission software. The official term is protocol proxy, and the software that optimizes IP-based data for carriage over satellites. "With T-Force, we provide our clients with carrier speeds up to T-1, and we also provide VPN [Virtual Private Network] security," says Jeremy Guralnick, senior vice president of Tachyon. In the asset management market, MCI is providing Tachyon's T-Force satellite service to CSX Transportation. With 23,000 miles of track, CSX operates one of the largest rail networks in the eastern United States. CSX is deploying T-Force to connect its remotely located railroad operating stations, many of which do not have access to terrestrial high-speed service.
"Using satellites provides CSX with reliable broadband," Guralnick adds. "For example, a flood at one of CSX's Appalachian depots knocked out terrestrial communications for five days. We were able to deploy a T-Force earth station and get them reconnected in a matter of hours."
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