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To: Michael who wrote (37328)	7/28/1999 2:00:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Competition for Omnitracks?> From the July 26, 1999, issue of Wireless Week Curing The Connected Car By Brad Smith There's a picture running through the dreams of Boulder, Colo., technologist Pat Kennedy. He sees a vehicle with a mind of its own driving down the highway, sensing the ebb and flow of its own internal systems. If one of those systems starts belching, Kennedy's vehicle sends out a call for a wireless bicarbonate of soda. Kennedy is the founder and CEO of CellPort Labs Inc., which has spent years developing an in-vehicle computer monitoring system coupled with wireless communications capabilities. CellPort today announced the latest evolution of its technology, called the CP2100. One of the target markets for CellPort is the world of telematics, but Kennedy's company is going at vehicle telemetry from a different point of view from most in the field. Typical telematics applications embed a computer chip in the vehicle; CellPort is embedding the computer server in the vehicle. This may be an important difference, given the complexities of today's vehicles. Most cars and trucks built today have several automotive computer bus networks working separately or in tandem to monitor and control the vehicle's subsystems. Among these subsystems can be the engine, transmission, ABS braking, airbags, air conditioning and even sound systems. CellPort's CP2100 is designed to monitor all these various automotive computer bus networks. It then can communicate what it has found through virtually any wireless network using Internet protocol standards. "We jump into this hornet's nest of networks and commonize them with a server-convergent technology and wireless link router," Kennedy said, adding that the CP2100 is the first off-the-shelf router of its kind. CellPort has started shipping the CP2100 and has orders for more than 350. Among its partners in marketing and developing the platform is the huge computer software company, Computer Associates International Inc. CellPort also said it has a joint marketing agreement with a military technology company Kennedy wouldn't name. J.P. Corriveau, senior vice president of advanced technology for Computer Associates, said the Islandia, N.Y., company would use the CP2100 as the platform and wireless gateway for its own Unicenter TNG Fleet Management System. Computer Associates' software provides the management capability and vehicle tracking so the joint system can be used by large truck and bus companies, car rental agencies or other firms that want to manage large fleets of vehicles. "We think the market is tremendous," Corriveau said. "There are 15 million vehicles sold every year and 5 million of them are managed." Computer Associates also is talking to car manufacturers about putting the system into high-end consumer vehicles. CellPort built such a system for Mercedes-Benz, which used it in its "Internet Car." Corriveau said the Computer Associates application with the CP2100 would start beta tests in August, with commercial availability by the end of the year. The application will cost about $1,000 per vehicle, at least half the cost of other remote fleet management systems, he said. The precursor to the CP2100 was CellPort's AutoServer wireless data server software and C/P Connect platform. The company was able to take that evolution to an industrialized stage after receiving about $4 million in venture capital funding from the Flanders Language Valley Fund in Belgium. Earlier funding for research came from GTE Mobilenet, Contel Cellular, Ameritech, Bell Mobility, AirTouch Communications and McCaw Cellular. CellPort had completed its first-generation architecture before it found the Flanders Valley funding, which enabled the commercialization. Kennedy hopes CellPort's CP2100 now is in the driver's seat, so to speak. In fact, he can see it in his dreams.

To: Michael who wrote (37328)	7/28/1999 2:30:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Japan Hungry For> July 28, 1999 Smart phones, handhelds market growing in Japan TOKYO—Japan's smart handheld device market finished 1998 with 1.42 million shipments, an annual increase of 24.3 percent, and the market is expected to reach just under 10 million units in 2003, according to International Data Corp. While handheld companions receive the most media attention, smart phones are coming on strong in Japan, added IDC. The firm expects the market to reach 2.4 million units in 2001 and believes it has the potential to represent more than one-half of the total SHD market by 2003. IDC also said the smart phone market in Japan grew 86.3 percent to 323,200 units, and is expected to more than double in 1999, but the personal digital assistant segment did not fare as well in 1998, and shipments actually declined for the first time ever to 311,800 units. Consultants call for cost-based interconnection WASHINGTON—Three years after the Federal Communications Commission devised more than 800 pages of interconnection regulations and had to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend them, Ovum and Arthur Andersen have released a report calling for a clear and consistent national interconnect framework based on cost. The report says that ‘‘some form of cost-based interconnection must be imposed on incumbents or operators with substantial market power.'' The FCC's rules used a cost-based interconnection system. There is also a warning to the FCC and other telecommunications regulators there may be times when cost-based interconnection is not the best answer. For example, some situations do not require regulation and other times when regulation other than cost-based is required.